THE  VARIETIES  OF  HUMAN  GREATNESS. 


DISCOURSE 


ON    THE 

LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   , 

OF   THE 

HON.  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S., 

• 

DELIVERED    IN 


THE  CHURCH  ON  CHURCH  GREEN, 


MARCH  25,  1838. 


BY  ALEXANDER  YOUNG. 


BOSTON: 

CHARLES  C.  LITTLE  AND  JAMES  BROWN. 

1838. 


His,  mihi  dilectum  nomen  manesque  verendos, 
His  saltern  accumulem  donis,  et  fungar  amico 
Munere  ! — Non  totns,  raptus  licet,  optime  praeses, 
Eriperis.     Redit  os  placidum,  moresque  benigni, 
Et  venit  ante  oculos,  et  pectore  vivit  imago." 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1838,  by  CHARLES  C.  LITTLE  and  JAMES 
EROWN,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


87X4 


TO 
TIJJE   CHILDREN 

•    OF 
MY     DEPARTED     PARISHIONER     AND     FRIEND. 

THIS   DISCOURSE 

is 

AFFECTIONATELY   INSCRIBED. 


If  any  apology  should  be  deemed  necessary  for  the  freedom  and  frequency 
with  which  I  have  introduced  into  this  discourse  quotations  from  the  old 
writers,  (most  of  the  longer  ones  having  been  omitted  in  the  delivery),  1 
would  plead  in  my  defence  the  following  judgment  of  Coleridge. 

"  Why  are  not  more  gems  from  our  early  prose  writers  scattered  over  the 
country  by  the  periodicals  ?  Great  old  books  by  the  great  old  authors  are  not 
in  every  body's  reach ;  and  though  it  is  better  to  know  them  thoroughly  than 
to  know  them  only  here  and  there,  yet  it  is  a  good  work  to  give  a  little  to  those 
who  have  neither  time  nor  means  to  get  more.  Let  every  book- worm,  when 
in  any  fragrant,  scarce  old  tome,  he  discovers  a  sentence,  an  illustration,  that 
does  his  heart  good,  hasten  to  give  it." 


DISCOURSE. 


1  CHRONICLES,  XXIX.  12. 

IN    THINE    HAND    O    LORD,  IS    POWER   AND    MIGHT  J     AND    IN    THINE    HAND    IT    IS 
TO    MAKE    GREAT,    AND    TO    GIVE    STRENGTH    UNTO    ALL. 

IJST  nothing,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  sovereignty  of 
God  more  strikingly  displayed,  than  in  the  diversities  of 
personal  endowment,  and  the  consequent  varieties  of  hu- 
man greatness.  Man,  with  his  limited  and  short-sighted 
wisdom,  aims,  in  all  his  plans  and  operations,  and  espe- 
cially in  his  modes  of  intellectual  and  moral  culture, 
at  uniformity.  If  he  could  have  his  own  way,  and 
there  were  no  conflicting  and  counteracting  influences 
in  nature,  he  would,  in  his  systems  of  education,  run  us 
all  in  the  same  moulds,  shape  us  in  the  same  unvarying 
and  inflexible  forms,  and  send  us  out  into  the  world 
exact  counterparts  and  copies  of  one  another.  But 
Divine  Providence,  in  the  plenitude  and  profusion  of  its 
power,  seems,  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  creation, 
to  pursue  an  entirely  opposite  course,  and  to  delight  in 
variety.  The  naturalist  tells  us  that  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom  no  single  leaf  is  exactly  like  its  fellow,  and  we 
know  on  whose  testimony  it  is  that  we  believe  that 


"  one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory."  There 
are,  too,  the  same  varieties  of  human  power  and  great- 
ness, as  there  are  inequalities  on  the  earth's  surface, 
gradations  in  the  scale  of  animal  life,  and  diversities  in 
the  instincts  and  capacities  of  the  several  races  of  the 
brute  creation. 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  my  text,  that  "  it  is  in  the  Lord's 
hand  to  make  great."  All  power  and  might  are  his, 
and  all  human  greatness,  of  every  sort  and  degree, 
physical  strength,  intellectual  vigor,  genius,  talent,  wis- 
dom, are  all  alike  his  gifts.  He  is  the  author  of  all  the 
powers  and  faculties  of  man,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest ;  which,  accordingly,  in  their  several  places  and 
appropriate  degrees,  are  all  to  be  honored  and  culti- 
vated. It  is  a  narrow  and  unworthy  feeling  to  dis- 
parage any  of  these  divine  endowments,  or  to  despise 
any  of  the  various  indications  of  human  power  and 
greatness.  The  mind  must  not  say  to  the  body,  "I 
have  no  need  of  thee ;"  nor  yet  the  senses  to  the  spirit, 
"  We  have  no  need  of  you."  For  man  is  not  one  power 
or  faculty,  but  many.  It  behooves  every  one,  then,  to 
stir  up  and  cultivate  the  peculiar  gift  of  God  which  is 
in  him,  and  thereby  cause  a  various  tribute  of  glory  to 
ascend  from  earth  to  heaven.  For  God  is  truly  glori- 
fied by  the  full  developement  and  right  exercise  of  our 
several  faculties,  and  by  their  consecration  to  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge,  virtue  and  happiness  on  the 
earth.  Not  in  vain  is  this  prodigal  variety  of  human 
gifts,  if  God  be  honored  and  man  blessed  by  it. 


Let  us,  my  hearers,  take  a  survey  of  some  of  the 
prominent  varieties  of  human  greatness.  Let  us  see 
how  they  have  been  viewed  and  estimated.  Let  us 
look  at  them  as  so  many  manifestations  of  divine  energy 
in  man. 

In  the  first  place,  and  at  the  lowest  point  of  the  scale, 
stands  physical  greatness,  strength  of  body,  power  of 
limb,  capacity  of  labor  and  endurance,  material  energy 
and  force.  At  some  periods  in  the  world's  history,  and 
at  certain  stages  of  man's  growth,  before  the  mental  and 
moral  faculties  are  unfolded,  and  the  higher  principles 
of  our  nature  have  gained  the  ascendency,  and  civiliza- 
tion spread  her  restraining  and  refining  influences,  this 
species  of  greatness  has  been  the  most  in  honor  and 
demand.  When  the  earth  was  one  vast  forest,  and  the 
wild  beast  prowled  on  the  frontiers  of  the  infant  settle- 
ments, and  waged  a  desperate  and  hardly  unequal  war- 
fare with  man,  then  physical  strength  was,  of  course, 
alone  cultivated  and  prized.  The  great  ones  of  that 
period  were  the  men  of  giant  frames,  and  tough  muscles, 
and  arms  of  iron  —  the  Samson  and  the  Hercules  of 
their  tribe.  The  primitive,  or  as  we  choose  to  call  it, 
the  fabulous  history  of  our  race,  is  full  of  the  marvellous 
exploits  of  these  renowned  heroes,  who  protected  the 
rising  hamlets,  with  their  flocks  and  herds,  from  the  de- 
predations of  the  wild  boar  and  the  wolf.  In  the  early 
annals  of  almost  every  nation,  ancient  and  modern,  we 
meet  with  a  great  man  of  this  sort,  who,  by  mere  phy- 
sical strength,  cleared  the  land  of  some  ferocious  animal, 


8 

the  terror  of  the  surrounding  villages,  and  thereby 
gained  for  himself  everlasting  gratitude  and  fame.  St. 
George,  the  tutelary  saint  of  England,  was  only  the 
great  dragon -slayer  of  his  day. 

We  come  down  a  little  later  in  the  history  of  our 
race,  and  we  find  another  form  of  greatness,  closely 
allied  to  the  preceding,  beginning  to  display  itself — 
namely,  martial  prowess,  or,  as  it  was  originally  and  dis- 
tinctively called,  warlike  virtue.  Hardly  are  the  wild 
beasts  exterminated,  than  there  springs  up,  as  it  were 
from  the  dragon's  blood  and  teeth,  a  horde  of  oppressors, 
strong,  proud  men,  who  declare  that  their  strength  shall 
be  the  law  of  justice,  and  that  their  might  shall  rule  in 
the  earth  —  men  who  wrong  the  poor,  spare  not  the 
widow,  nor  reverence  the  grey  hairs  of  the  aged. 
These  are  the  sons  of  Anak  and  Belial,  whose  con- 
tinued and  aggravated  oppressions  at  last  raise  up 
an  indignant  band,  who,  though  inferior  in  muscular 
strength,  are  enabled,  by  the  invention  of  weapons,  and 
by  their  superior  agility  and  skill,  to  put  themselves  on 
a  level  with  these  haughty  oppressors,  and  cope  with 
them  in  personal  combat.  They  become  the  guardians 
of  innocence,  the  avengers  of  wrong,  the  giant-quellers 
of  their  day — in  a  word,  the  great  men  of  their  time. 
In  a  later  age,  the  institution  of  chivalry  was  only  the 
reproduction  of  the  same  remedy  on  the  recurrence  of 
the  same  evil.  In  both  cases  the  feeble  and  the  friend- 
less were  generously  protected  against  outrage  by  the 
strong  and  stout-hearted. 


9 

Here  we  have  the  germ  of  military  greatness,  which, 
as  soon  as  war  was  made  a  business,  and  bloodshed  a 
pastime,  became  the  greatest  curse  that  ever  afflicted 
our  race.  From  the  earliest  times  down  to  those  in 
which  we  live,  martial  glory  has,  in  every  age,  continued 
to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  stupid  world  ;  and  I  know  not 
but  that  even  now,  after  the  dear-bought  and  bitter  ex- 
perience of  ten  thousand  battle-fields,  military  greatness, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  men,  stands  at  the  head 
of  all  greatness.  The  fame  of  the  Caesars,  the  Attilas, 
and  the  Napoleons,  the  great  manslayers,  still  sheds  a 
blighting  and  baleful  influence  over  the  prospects  of  hu- 
manity, as  their  bloody  victories  did  over  the  pleasant 
fields  of  an  industrious  peasantry.* 

But  let  us  pass  on  from  these  exhibitions  of  physical 
greatness  to  the  higher  and  nobler  manifestations  of 
human  power.  Physical  strength  man  shares  in  com- 
mon with  the  brute ;  but  the  "  spirit  within  him  is  the 
candle  of  the  Lord,"  kindled  from  the  great  source  of 
light,  and  "  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  hath  given 
him  understanding."  When,  therefore,  we  would  con- 
ceive worthily  of  man,  we  think  of  him  as  an  intelligent 

*  See  Southey's  beautiful  little  poem  on  the  Battle  of  Blenheim. 

"  They  burned  the  country  all  around, 
And  wasted  far  and  wide, 
And  many  a  new-born  infant  there, 
And  tender  mother  died  ; — 
But  things  like  this,  you  know  must  be, 
At  every  famous  victory." 

2 


10 


being,  possessed  of  vast  capacities,  comprehending  the 
universe  in  his  ken,  and  "  with  large  discourse  looking 
before  and  after."  And  when  we  would  form  an  idea 
of  a  superior  kind  of  greatness,  we  think  of  the  giants 
of  intellect,  of  Aristotle  and  Bacon,  the  great  lights  of 
philosophy  and  science,  men  who  have  enlarged  the 
domains  of  thought  and  carried  forward  the  human  race 
with  them ;  though  at  the  same  time  they  themselves 
"  stride  on  so  far  before  the  rest  of  the  world  that  they 
dwindle  in  the  distance." 

Of  all  the  various  branches  of  intellectual  pursuit, 
that  science  which  explains  the  system  of  the  universe, 
and  reveals  the  mechanism  of  the  heavens,  must  always 
take  the  lead  as  the  most  sublime  and  marvellous ;  and 
the  foremost  and  most  successful  cultivators  of  this 
science  will  always  be  classed  among  the  greatest  of 
men.  What,  indeed,  can  be  more  astonishing,  than  that 
a  being  like  one  of  us,  endowed  apparently  with  no 
higher  or  different  powers,  should  be  able  to  obtain  so 
minute  and  accurate  a  knowledge  of  those  distant  plan- 
ets, and  be  as  well  acquainted  with  their  constitution, 
elements,  and  laws,  as  the  geologist,  the  chemist,  the 
botanist,  with  the  appropriate  objects  of  their  sciences  ? 
Nothing  gives  me  so  exalted  an  idea  of  the  power  of  man, 
and  the  extent  and  reach  of  his  capacities,  as  his  ability  to 
calculate,  with  unerring  precision,  the  distances  of  those 
twinkling  orbs,  to  determine  their  figures,  magnitudes, 
and  velocities,  to  measure  their  weight,  estimate  their 
relative  attractions  and  disturbing  forces,  delineate  their 


11 

orbits,  register  their  laws  of  motion,  fix  the  times  of  their 
revolution,  and  predict  the  periods  of  their  return..  To 
a  common  mind,  uninstructed  in  the  science,  there  is 
nothing  that  appears  so  much  like  divine  wisdom.  A 
Galileo,  a  Kepler,  a  Newton,  seem  to  him  to  belong  to 
another  race,  a  higher  order  of  beings.  They  appear  to 
possess  some  additional  faculties.  "What  a  vast  in- 
terval, indeed,  from  the  imperfect  notions  of  the  Chal- 
dean shepherd  and  the  Phoenician  mariner  to  the  '  Ce- 
lestial Mechanics '  of  a  La  Place  ! " 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  the  majority  of  men,  cer- 
tainly of  uneducated  men,  are  utterly  incredulous  to  the 
statements  of  astronomical  science.  "Tell  a  plain 
countryman,"  says  Bishop  Hall,  "  that  the  sun,  or  some 
higher  or  lesser  star,  is  much  bigger  than  his  cart  wheel, 
or  at  least  so  many  scores  bigger  than  the  whole  earth, 
he  laughs  thee  to  scorn,  as  affecting  admiration  with  a 
learned  untruth ;  yet  the  scholar,  by  the  eye  of  reason, 
doth  as  plainly  see  and  acknowledge  this  truth,  as  that 
his  hand  is  bigger  than  his  pen."  Indeed,  nothing  can 
be  more  certain  than  the  doctrines  of  Astronomy.  They 
rest  on  impregnable  foundations,  on  the  demonstrations 
of  mathematical  evidence,  than  which  nothing,  except 
the  evidence  of  consciousness,  can  be  more  satisfactory 
and  conclusive. 

"  Happy,"  says  Gilbert  Wakefield,  "  that  man  who 
lays  the  foundations  of  his  future  studies  deep  in  the 
recesses  of  geometry, — that  'purifier  of  the  soul,'  as 
Plato  called  it, — and  in  the  principles  of  mathematical 


12 

philosophy;  compared  with  whose  noble  theories  (I 
make.no  scruple  to  declare  it)  our  classical  lucubrations 
are  as  a  glimmering  of  a  taper  to  the  meridian  splendors 
of  an  equatorial  sun.  What  subject  of  human  contem- 
plation shall  compare  in  grandeur  with  that  which  de- 
monstrates the  trajectories,  the  periods,  the  distances, 
the  dimensions,  the  velocities  and  gravitations  of  the 
planetary  system  ;  states  the  tides  ;  adjusts  the  nutation 
of  the  earth,  and  contemplates  the  invisible  comet  wan- 
dering in  his  parabolic  orb,  for  successive  centuries,  in 
but  a  corner  of  boundless  space  ? — which  considers  that 
the  diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit,  of  one  hundred  and 
ninety  millions  in  length,  is  but  an  evanescent  point  at 
the  nearest  fixed  star  to  our  system ; — that  the  first 
beam  of  the  sun's  light,  whose  rapidity  is  inconceivable, 
may  be  still  traversing  the  bosom  of  boundless  space  1 
Language  sinks  beneath  contemplations  so  exalted,  and 
so  well  calculated  to  inspire  the  most  awful  sentiments 
of  the  Great  Artificer ;  of  that  Wisdom  which  could 
contrive  this  stupendous  fabric,  that  Providence  which 
can  support  it,  and  that  Power  whose  hand  could 
launch  into  their  orbits  bodies  of  a  magnitude  so  pro- 
digious." * 

It  was  a  science  that  early  engaged  the  notice  of 
men,  and,  to  its  honor  be  it  spoken,  it  has  always  ex- 
erted a  purifying  and  elevating  influence  on  its  votaries. 
Indeed,  how  could  it  be  otherwise?  Who  can  look 

*  Gilbert  Wakefield's  Memoirs,  I.  103. 


13 

upon  those  brilliant  points,  and  not  fancy  them  the 
spangled  pavement  of  a  divine  abode  ?  There  is  virtue 
as  well  as  poetry  and  philosophy  in  them.  They  shed 
down  a  healing  and  restorative  influence  upon  their 
worshippers.  They  are  the  symbols  of  endurance  and 
perpetuity.  "When  I  gaze  upon  the  stars,  do  they 
not  seem  to  look  down  on  me  as  if  with  pity  from  their 
serene  spaces,  like  eyes  glistening  with  heavenly  tears 
over  the  little  lot  of  man?  Thousands  of  human 
generations,  all  as  noisy  as  our  own,  have  been  swal- 
lowed up  of  time,  and  there  remains  no  wreck  of  them 
any  more ;  and  Arcturus,  and  Orion,  and  Sirius,  and 
the  Pleiades  are  still  shining  in  their  courses,  clear  and 
young,  as  when  the  shepherd  first  noted  them  in  the 
plain  of  Shinar." 

Another  variety  of  human  greatness  is  practical 
talent;  by  which  I  understand  a  talent  for  business, 
skill  in  affairs,  a  faculty  of  compassing  ends  and  of 
swaying  the  judgments  and  wills  of  others,  and  compel- 
ling them  to  execute  our  purposes  and  behests.  This, 
unquestionably,  is  a  high  endowment,  enabling  its  pos- 
sessor, when  it  is  skilfully  used,  to  wield  a  mighty  influ- 
ence and  to  bring  about  vast  results.  At  the  present 
day,  it  is  in  great  repute,  and  perhaps  is  more  estimated 
than  any  other  species  of  talent,  far  more,  I  think,  than 
it  intrinsically  deserves.  For  often  it  is  a  minute  species 
of  wisdom,  narrow  in  its  views,  limited  in  its  plans,  and 
selfish  in  its  aims.  The  mere  practical  man  is,  after  all, 
but  an  imperfect  specimen  of  humanity.  He  is  little 


14 

fitted,  by  his  habits  of  thought  and  action,  to  manage 
public  affairs,  discuss  the  great  questions  of  morals  or 
government,  or  legislate  on  the  complicated  interests  of 
a  people.  The  author  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiasticus 
says  of  such  men,  "  Without  these  a  city  cannot  be 
inhabited,  and  they  will  maintain  the  state  of  the  world. 
But  they  shall  not  be  sought  for  in  public  council,  nor 
sit  on  the  judges'  seat ;  they  cannot  declare  justice  and 
judgment."  And  the  most  popular  writer  of  the  pre- 
sent age  observes,  "those  who  live  in  public  business, 
and  of  course  in  constant  agitation  and  intrigue,  know 
but  little  about  the  real  and  deep  progress  of  opinions 
and  events.  Immersed  in  little  political  detail  and  the 
struggling  skirmish  of  party,  they  seem  to  lose  sight 
of  the  great  progressive  movement  of  human  affairs. 
They  put  me  somewhat  in  mind  of  a  miller,  who  is 
so  busy  with  the  clatter  of  his  own  wheels,  grindstones, 
and  machinery,  and  so  much  employed  in  regulating 
his  own  artificial  mill-dam,  that  he  is  incapable  of 
noticing  the  gradual  swell  of  the  river  from  which  he 
derives  his  little  stream,  until  it  comes  down  with  such 
force  as  to  carry  his  whole  manufactory  away  before  it."  * 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  I  have  been  speaking  of 
mere  practical  talent.  When,  however,  this  is  combined 
with  intellectual  power,  and  guided  by  humane  and 
benevolent  feelings,  then  is  manifested  a  species  of 
moral  greatness,  from  the  influence  of  which  the  most 
important  and  beneficial  results  have  redounded  to  the 

*  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  Vol.  V.  Chapter  7. 


15 

world.  It  becomes  the  instrument  of  advancing  civil- 
ization, improving  the  condition  of  our  race,  mitigating 
the  woes  of  humanity,  lessening  the  dangers  and  expo- 
sures of  life,  and  prolonging  the  term  of  human  exist- 
ence. For  my  own  part,  I  would  rather  have  been  the 
discoverer  of  vaccination,  the  inventor  of  the  safety- 
lamp,  or  the  author  of  "  The  Practical  Navigator,"  than 
stand  at  the  head  of  all  the  merely  speculative  philo- 
sophers and  theorists  that  have  ever  lived.  The  names 
of  Jenner,  and  Davy,  and  Howard,  the  preservers  and 
benefactors  of  their  species,  in  real  greatness  how  do 
they  transcend  those  of  the  famous  military  heroes,  the 
destroyers  of  their  fellow-men !  Burke  mentions  it  as 
the  high  praise  of  Howard,  that  "  he  visited  all  Europe 
to  take  the  gauge  and  dimensions  of  misery;"  and  he 
adds  that  "  his  plan  was  as  full  of  genius  as  of  human- 
ity." "Maria  d'Escobar,"  we  are  told  by  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  "  a  Spanish  lady,  first  brought  a  few  grains 
of  wheat  into  the  city  of  Lima.  For  three  years  she 
distributed  their  produce  among  the  colonists,  giving 
twenty  or  thirty  grains  to  each  farmer.  By  this  supply 
of  food  she  brought  into  existence  more  human  beings 
than  Napoleon  destroyed.  If  she  had  come  from 
Egypt  to  Attica  in  the  earlier  days  of  Grecian  history, 
she  would  have  been  a  goddess.  Sir  John  Malcolm 
introduced  potatoes  into  India.  That  benefit  may  be 
remembered  long  after  his  Persian  mission  is  forgotten. 
If  Lord  Wellesley  had  accomplished  the  abolition  of 
infanticide,  his  name  would  have  been  held  in  everlast- 


16 

ing  remembrance.  All  the  negotiations  and  wars, 
which  appear  so  splendid  at  present,  will,  in  a  history 
of  twenty  years  hence,  not  occupy  ten  pages.  So 
nearly,  in  some  parts  of  human  conduct,  does  the  dis- 
tribution even  of  fame  agree  with  the  dictates  of  that 
eternal  justice  which  declares,  that  whosoever  shall  give 
to  drink  to  one  of  these  little  ones  a  cup  of  cold  water, 
shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward.  The  smallest  act  of 
benevolence,  especially  of  benevolence  towards  those 
who  spread  truth,  is  sure  to  reward  itself,  and  is  likely 
to  be  praised  by  future  generations." 

We  come  at  last  to  the  highest  species  of  human 
greatness,  namely,  pure  moral  and  spiritual  greatness. 
Would  we  view  man  in  his  noblest  aspect,  we  must 
turn  from  mere  physical  operations  and  intellectual 
pursuits,  and  survey  his  moral  and  spiritual  nature. 
"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man."  The  noblest 
of  sciences  is  moral  science ;  the  highest  philosophy  is 
the  philosophy  of  man's  spiritual  nature ;  and  the  most 
glorious  exercise  of  his  powers  is  in  developing  and 
cultivating  his  religious  instincts.  The  man  who  de- 
votes himself,  singly  and  earnestly,  to  the  cultivation  of 
moral  principle  and  spiritual  truth,  who  labors  to  extend 
through  the  community  a  reverence  for  right,  duty  and 
virtue,  and  by  the  persuasive  influence  of  his  own 
example  and  the  deep  fervor  of  his  own  cheerful  and 
unaffected  piety,  diffuses  all  around  him  the  same  trust- 
ing confidence  in  God  and  the  same  unwavering  reli- 
ance upon  a  benignant  Providence  that  fill  his  own 


17 

bosom — that  man  seems  to  me  to  have  attained  to  the 
highest  endowments  of  human  nature,  and  reached  the 
summit  of  earthly  greatness.  And  it  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  this  was  the  sentiment  of  the  most  illus- 
trious and  successful  investigator  of  chemical  science 
which  this  age  has  produced — I  mean  Sir  Humphry 
Davy.  "I  envy,"  says  that  great  philosopher,  "no 
quality  of  the  mind  or  intellect  in  others ;  not  genius, 
power,  wit,  or  fancy.  But  if  I  could  choose  what  would 
be  most  delightful,  and,  I  believe,  most  useful  to  me,  I 
should  prefer  a  firm  religious  belief  to  every  other 
blessing.  For  it  makes  life  a  discipline  of  goodness, 
creates  new  hopes  when  all  earthly  hopes  vanish,  and 
throws  over  the  decay,  the  destruction  of  existence,  the 
most  gorgeous  of  all  lights ;  awakens  life  even  in  death, 
and  from  corruption  and  decay  calls  up  beauty  and 
divinity ;  makes  an  instrument  of  torture  and  of  shame 
the  ladder  of  ascent  to  paradise;  and,  far  above  all 
combinations  of  earthly  hopes,  calls  up  the  most  delight- 
ful visions  of  palms  and  amaranths,  the  gardens  of  the 
blest,  the  security  of  everlasting  joys,  where  the  sen- 
sualist and  the  skeptic  view  only  gloom,  decay,  anni- 
hilation, and  despair." 

You  have  doubtless  perceived,  my  hearers,  long  ere 
this,  that  the  train  of  my  remarks  has  been  suggested 
by  the  solemn  event  which  has  recently  deprived  this 
community  of  one  of  its  most  efficient  and  valuable 

3 


18 

members,  this  congregation  of  one  of  its  firmest  pillars, 
and  the  scientific  world  of  one  of  its  brightest  orna- 
ments. A  great  light  has  suddenly  gone  out  while  it 
was  yet  beaming  brightly  and  beneficently  on  the 
world.  An  eminent  man  has  fallen  in  the  midst  of 
us — one  whom  God  had  made  singularly  great  in  more 
than  one  of  the  departments  which  I  have  just  speci- 
fied. His  position  as  a  public  man,  the  various  posts 
and  offices  which  he  filled,  his  relation  to  the  Univer- 
sity and  to  other  literary  institutions  and  philosophical 
societies,  and  the  prominent  place  which  he  confess- 
edly occupied  at  the  head  of  the  scientific  men  of  this 
western  continent,  are  sufficient, — apart  from  any  pri- 
vate considerations,  or  feelings  of  personal  respect, — to 
justify  the  notice  which  I  now  propose  to  take  of  his 
life  and  character.  There  was  much  in  that  life  instruc- 
tive and  encouraging,  particularly  to  the  young,  the 
friendless,  the  poor.  There  was  much  in  that  char- 
acter worthy  of  eulogy  and  imitation.  Let  me  speak 
out  my  impressions  and  recollections  of  him  with  that 
simplicity  and  frankness  which  he  loved. 

The  late  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH  was  born  at  Salem, 
in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  26th  day 
of  March,  1773.  He  was  the  fourth  child  of  Habakkuk 
and  Mary  Ingersoll  Bowditch.  His  ancestors,  for  three 
generations,  had  been  shipmasters,  and  his  father,  on 
retiring  from  that  "perilous  mode  of  hard  industry," 
carried  on  the  trade  of  a  cooper,  by  which  he  gained  a 


19 

scanty  and  precarious  subsistence  for  a  family  of  seven 
children.* 

I  had  a  curiosity  to  trace  up  the  life  of  this  wonder- 
ful man,  if  possible,  to  his  childhood,  to  ascertain  his 
early  character  and  powers,  and  the  influences  under 


*  The  names  of  the  children  were  (I  mention  them  in  the  order  of 
their  ages)  Mary,  Habakkuk,  Elizabeth,  NATHANIEL,  William,  Samuel, 
and  Lois.  "William,  who  died  in  1799,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  is  said 
to  have  been  quite  as  remarkable,  in  his  childhood,  as  Nathaniel.  They 
seem  to  have  been  a  short-lived  race,  five  of  them  having  died  before  the 
age  of  twenty-three,  and  the  eldest  in  1808,  at  the  age  of  forty-two.  The 
old  ladies,  mentioned  hereafter,  told  me  the  melancholy  tale  that  they  re- 
collected seeing  two  of  the  daughters,  Mary  and  Lois,  both  of  them  mar- 
ried women,  pining  away  with  a  consumption  in  the  same  room,  and 
dying  within  a  few  months  of  each  other.  Nathaniel  was  about  the  same 
time,  1808,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  attacked  with  a  severe  hemorrhage  at 
the  lungs.  In  consequence  of  this  he  took  a  journey  with  his  friend,  the 
Hon.  Thomas  W.  Ward,  now  of  this  city;  and  on  their  arrival  at  Ded- 
ham,  so  feeble  did  he  appear,  that  the  compassionate  innkeeper  asked 
Mr.  Ward  where  his  friend  belonged,  and  advised  him  to  return  home 
immediately,  for  he  doubted  whether  he  would  live  to  reach  the  next  inn. 
Not  long  after  his  removal  to  Boston  he  fell  twice  suddenly  in  the  street, 
which  excited  the  most  alarming  apprehensions  in  the  minds  of  his 
friends,  they  fearing  that  he  might  at  any  time  be  taken  off  by  apoplexy. 
But  Dr.  Bowditch  ascertained  by  experience  that  this  falling  was  occa- 
sioned by  his  walking  immediately  after  dinner.  He  accordingly  post- 
poned his  walk  to  a  later  hour  in  the  day,  and  never  had  a  recurrence  of 
the  complaint.  Earlier  in  life,  in  consequence  of  poring  over  figures 
whilst  sitting  up  to  watch  with  a  friend,  he  was  attacked  with  inflam- 
mation and  weakness  of  the  eyes,  which  compelled  him  to  favor  them 
for  two  years.  All  these  things  should  be  taken  into  consideration  in 
forming  a  just  estimate  of  the  amount  and  extent  of  his  labors.  He 
never  would  have  been  able  to  accomplish  so  much  without  the  strictest 
regularity  in  diet  and  exercise. 


20 

which  his  mind  and  heart  had  been  formed.  Accord- 
ingly, on  a  recent  visit  to  Salem,  I  took  a  walk,  of  some 
two  or  three  miles,  to  see  a  house  where  he  used  to  say 
that  he  and  his  mother  had  lived  when  he  was  as  yet 
hardly  advanced  beyond  infancy.  My  walk  brought 
me  among  the  pleasant  farm-houses  of  a  retired  hamlet 
in  Essex  county;  and  I  found  the  plain  two-story 
house,  with  but  two  rooms  in  it,  where  he  dwelt  with 
his  mother ;  and  I  saw  the  chamber- window  where  he 
said  she  used  to  sit  and  show  him  "the  new  moon 
with  the  old  moon  in  her  arm,"*  and,  with  the  poetical 
superstition  of  a  sailor's  wife,  jingle  the  silver  in  her 
pocket  that  her  husband  might  have  good  luck,  and  she 
good  tidings  from  him,  far  off  upon  the  sea.  I  entered 
that  house  and  two  others  in  the  vicinity,  and  found 
three  ancient  women  who  knew  her  well,  and  remem- 
bered her  wonderful  boy.  I  sat  down  by  their  fire- 
sides and  listened  with  greedy  ear  to  the  story,  which 
they  gladly  told  me,  of  that  remarkable  child,  remarka- 
ble for  his  early  goodness  as  well  as  for  his  early  great- 
ness. Their  words,  uttered  in  the  plain,  hearty  English 
of  the  yeomanry  of  Massachusetts,  uncorrupted  by  the 
admixture  of  any  foreign  gibberish,  f  I  took  down  from 


*  See  the  grand  old  ballad  of  "  Sir  Patrick  Spens,"  the  oldest  in  the 
language,  in  Percy's  Reliques,  Allan  Cunningham's  Scottish  Songs,  or 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border. 

f  What  a  pity  it  is  that  our  noble  language,  of  itself  adequate  to  all 
purposes,  should  be  in  such  danger  of  being  converted  into  a  Babylonian 
jargon  of  French  and  German.  The  late  "  History  of  the  French  Revo- 


' 

21 

their  lips,  and  now  give  them  without  any  alteration 
or  improvement. 

There  were  three  of  these  crones,  it  will  be  recol- 
lected; and  the  accounts  which  they  severally  gave, 
both  of  the  child  and  his  mother,  perfectly  coincide,  as 
will  be  seen,  without  any  discrepancy,  and  therefore 
mutually  confirm  one  another's  statement  of  things  and 
appearances  as  they  existed  upwards  of  sixty  years 
ago.  The  boy  was  at  this  time  about  three  years  old. 

The  first  one  that  I  saw  and  interrogated  said  that 
Nat.  was  "a  beautiful,  nice,  likely,  clever,  thoughtful 
boy.  Learning  came  natural  to  him ;  and  his  mother 
used  to  say  that  he  would  make  something  or  nothing." 
I  asked  her  whether  she  had  ever  heard  what  became 
of  him.  "O  yes,"  she  replied,  "he  became  a  great 
man,  and  went  to  Boston,  and  had  a  mighty  deal  of 
learning."  "  What  kind  of  learning  ?  "  I  asked.  "  Why," 
she  answered,  "  I  believe  he  was  a  pilot,  and  knew  how 
to  steer  all  the  vessels."  This  evidently  was  her  simple 
and  confused  idea  of  "  The  Practical  Navigator." 

The  second  old  lady  stated  that  "Nat.  went  to 
school  to  her  aunt,  in  the  revolutionary  war,  in  the  house 
where  we  were  sitting,  when  he  was  about  three  years 


lution,"  in  many  respects  a  noble  work,  would  stand  some  chance  of 
going  down  to  posterity,  had  it  been  written  in  the  English  tongue — for 
although  some  of  the  words  may  be  Saxon,  yet  the  idiom  throughout  is 
any  thing  but  English.  A  man  who  has  shown  himself  capable,  in  his 
beautiful  Life  of  Schiller,  of  writing  in  a  simple  and  pure  style,  ought  to 
be  ashamed  of  these  miserable  affectations. 


22 

old,  and  that  she  took  mightily  to  him,  and  that  he  was 
the  best  scholar  she  ever  had.  He  learnt  amazing  fast, 
for  his  mind  was  fully  given  to  it.  He  did  not  seem 
like  other  children ;  he  seemed  better.  His  mother  was 
a  beautiful,  nice  woman." 

The  third  old  lady  said  that  "  Nat.  was  a  little,  still 
creature ;  and  his  mother  a  mighty  free,  good-natured 
woman.  She  used  to  say,  '  Who  should  n't  be  cheerly 
if  a  Christian  should  n't  ?'  Her  children  took  after  her, 
and  she  had  a  particular  way  of  guarding  them  against 
evil." 

These  I  testify  to  be  their  very  words,  as  I  pencilled 
them  down  at  the  time.  And  they  show,  I  think,  very 
clearly,  the  influence  of  the  mother's  mind  and  heart 
upon  the  character  of  her  son.  Of  that  mother,  in 
after  life,  and  to  its  close,  he  often  spoke  in  terms  of 
the  highest  admiration  and  the  strongest  affection,  and 
in  his  earnest  manner  would  say — "  My  mother  loved 
me — idolized  me — worshipped  me."* 

After  leaving  the  dame's  school,  the  only  other  in- 
struction he  ever  received  was  obtained  at  the  common 
public  schools  of  his  native  town,  which  were  then  very 
inferior  to  what  they  have  since  become,  being  wholly 


*  These  circumstances  concerning  the  childhood  of  Dr.  Bowditch  were 
obtained  since  the  delivery  of  the  discourse,  but  are  inserted  in  this  place 
as  interesting  facts,  worth  preserving,  as  indicative  of  his  early  capacities 
and  character.  No  apology,  I  trust,  will  be  needed  for  the  minuteness 
with  which  I  have  detailed  them.  To  his  future  biographer  they  will  be 
invaluable,  and  for  his  use  chiefly  were  they  gathered  up  and  preserved. 


23 

inadequate  to  furnish  even  the  groundwork  and  elements 
of  a  respectable  education.  I  have  heard  it  stated,  on 
the  authority  of  one  of  his  schoolfellows,  that  the  only 
book  in  their  school  was  a  dictionary,*  which  belonged 
to  the  master,  who  gave  out  the  words  from  it  to  be 
spelt  by  the  boys.  I  have  likewise  been  told  by  one 
who  lived  in  Salem  at  the  time,  that  the  master  of  this 
school,  an  Irishman,  by  the  name  of  Ford,  a  person  of 
violent  and  passionate  temper,  gave  young  Bowditch, 
when  he  was  about  five  or  six  years  old,  a  very  diffi- 
cult sum  in  arithmetic  to  perform.  His  scholar  went 
to  his  desk,  and  soon  afterwards  brought  up  his  slate 
with  the  question  solved.  The  master,  surprised  at 
the  suddenness  of  his  return,  asked  him  who  had  been 
doing  the  sum  for  him  ;  and  on  his  answering  "  Nobody 
— I  did  it  myself,"  he  gave  him  a  severe  chastisement 
for  lying,  not  believing  it  possible  that  he  could,  of  him- 
self, without  any  assistance,  perform  so  difficult  a  ques- 
tion. It  is  believed  that  he  did  not  afterwards  have  the 
grace  to  ask  the  pardon  of  his  quick-witted  pupil. 

It  was  highly  honorable  to  him,  that  although  he  had 
not  himself  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  a  liberal  or  learned 
education,  he  felt  the  importance  and  acknowledged  the 
value  of  it ;  and  accordingly  gave  to  his  children  the 
best  which  the  country  afforded,  and  took  a  deep  in- 


*  Speaking  of  the  dictionary,  it  may  be  worth  stating  that  Dr.  Bow- 
ditch  had  upwards  of  a  hundred  dictionaries,  of  different  kinds,  in  his 
library. 


24 

terest,  and,  for  many  years,  an  efficient  agency  in  the 
concerns  of  its  principal  University.* 

But  the  advantages  of  school,  such  as  they  were,  he 
was  obliged  to  forego  at  the  early  age  of  ten  years, 
"  his  poverty  and  not  his  will  consenting,"  that  he  might 
go  into  his  father's  shop  and  help  to  support  the  family. 
He  was  soon,  however,  transferred  as  an  apprentice  to  a 
ship-chandler,  in  whose  shop  he  continued  until  he 
went  to  sea,  first  as  a  clerk,  afterwards  as  supercargo, 
and  finally  as  master  and  supercargo  jointly.  It  was 
whilst  he  was  in  the  ship-chandler's  shop  that  he  first 
manifested  that  strong  bent,  or  what  is  commonly  called 
an  original  genius,  for  mathematical  pursuits.  Every 
moment  that  he  could  snatch  from  the  counter,  was 
given  to  the  slate.  An  old  gentleman,  who  used  fre- 
quently to  visit  the  shop,  said  to  his  wife,  one  day,  on  re- 
turning home,  "  I  never  go  into  that  shop  but  I  see  that 
boy  ciphering  and  figuring  away  on  his  slate,  as  if  his 
very  life  depended  upon  it ;  and  if  he  goes  on  at  this 
rate,  as  he  has  begun,  I  should  not  at  all  wonder  if, 
at  last,  in  the  course  of  time,  he  should  get  to  be  an 
almanac-maker ! " — this  being,  in  his  view,  the  summit 
of  mathematical  attainment. 

From  his  earliest  years,  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  had 
an  ardent  love  of  reading,  and  he  has  been  heard  to 
say  that,  even .  when  quite  young,  he  read  through  a 


*  Dr.  Bowditch  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Corporation  of  Harvard 
College  in  1826,  and  held  that  place  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


25 

whole  Encyclopedia,  from  beginning  to  end,  without 
omitting  a  single  article.* 

He  sailed  on  his  first  voyage,  on  the  llth  of  January, 
1795,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  in  the  capacity  of 
captain's  clerk,  on  board  the  ship  Henry,  of  Salem, 
owned  by  Elias  Hasket  Derby,  Esq.,  and  commanded 
by  Captain  Henry  Prince,  who  still  lives  to  glory  in  the 
fame  of  his  clerk,  f  Captain  John  Gibaut,  with  whom 
young  Bowditch  had  been  engaged  the  year  before  in 
taking  a  survey  of  the  town  of  Salem,!  had  previously 
been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  ship,  and  had 
invited  his  friend  to  accompany  him  as  clerk.  He  con- 
sented; but  in  consequence  of  some. misunderstanding 
subsequently  springing  up  between  the  owner  of  the 
ship  and  Captain  Gibaut,  he  relinquished  the  command, 
and  of  course  his  agreement  with  his  friend  was  at  an 
end.  Mr.  Derby,  however,  on  the  appointment  of  Capt. 
Prince,  said  to  him,  "Do  you  know  young  Bowditch?" 
"  Yes,  very  well."  "  How  should  you  like  to  have  him 
go  in  the  ship  with  you ?  "  "I  should  like  it  above  all 

*  Since  the  last  page  was  struck  off*,  I  have  ascertained  that  after  he 
left  the  ship-chandlery,  kept  by  Messrs.  Ropes  &;  Hodges,  he  was  for 
some  time  a  clerk  in  the  grocery  store  of  Samuel  C.  Ward,  at  which 
time  he  was  able  to  calculate  the  eclipses  of  the  moon,  and  most  of  the 
phenomena  recorded  in  the  almanacs  of  that  day. 

t  Captain  Prince  was  present  when  this  discourse  was  repeated  in 
the  First  Church  in  Salem,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  that  it  was 
delivered  at  Church  Green,  in  Boston. 

t  Captain  Gibaut  used  to  say,  that  he  depended  entirely  upon  his 
young  friend  for  taking  the  angles. 

4 


26 

things,"  said  the  captain.  He  accordingly  went  on 
board  as  clerk,  although  his  name  was  entered  on  the 
shipping-papers  as  second  mate.  The  ship  sailed  for 
the  Isle  of  Bourbon,  and  returned  home  after  an 
absence  of  exactly  one  year. 

His  second  voyage  was  made  as  supercargo,  on 
board  the  ship  Astraea,  of  Salem,  belonging  to  the 
same  owner,  and  commanded  by  the  same  captain. 
The  vessel  sailed  to  Lisbon,  touched  at  Madeira,  and 
then  proceeded  to  Manilla,  and  arrived  at  Salem  in  May 
1797. 

At  Madeira,  the  captain  and  supercargo  were  very 
politely  received  by  Mr.  Pintard,  the  American  consul 
there,  to  whose  house  the  ship  was  consigned,  and 
were  frequently  invited  to  dine  with  his  family.  Mrs. 
Pintard  had  heard  from  another  American  shipmaster 
that  the  young  supercargo  was  "  a  great  calculator,"  and 
she  felt  a  curiosity  to  test  his  capacities.  Accordingly, 
she  said  to  him  one  day  at  dinner,  "  Mr.  Bowditch,  I 
have  a  question  which  I  should  like  to  have  you  an- 
swer. Some  years  since,"  naming  the  time,  "  I  received 
a  legacy  in  Ireland.  •  The  money  was  there  invested,  and 
remained  some  time  on  interest;  the  amount  was  sub- 
sequently remitted  to  England,  where  the  interest 
likewise  accumulated ;  and  lately  the  whole  amount 
has  been  remitted  to  me  here.  What  sum  ought  I  to 
receive?"  She  of  course  mentioned  the  precise  dates 
of  the  several  remittances,  as  she  went  along.  Mr. 
Bowditch  lay  down  his  knife  and  fork,  said  it  was  a 


27 

little  difficult,  on  account  of  the  difference  of  currency 
and  the  number  of  the  remittances;  but  squeezing  the 
tips  of  his  fingers,  he  said,  in  about  two  minutes,  "The 
sum  you  should  receive  is  <£843  15s.  6|d."  "Well, 
Mr.  clerk,"  said  Mrs.  Pintard  to  the  head  clerk  of  the 
house,  an  elderly  person,  who  was  esteemed  a  very 
skilful  accountant,  "  you  have  been  figuring  it  out  for 
me  on  paper ;  has  he  got  it  right  ?  "  "  Yes,  Madam," 
said  the  clerk,  taking  his  long  calculation  out  of  his 
pocket,  "he  has  got  it  exactly.  And  I  venture  to  say, 
that  there  is  not  another  man  on  the  island  that  can  do 
it  in  two  hours." 

In  August,  1798,  he  went  in  the  same  ship  with 
Capt.  Prince,  on  his  third  voyage,  to  Cadiz,  thence  to 
the  Mediterranean,  loaded  at  Alicant,  and  arrived  at 
Salem  in  1799. 

On  the  voyage  from  Cadiz  to  Alicant,  they  were 
chased  by  a  French  privateer,  and  having  a  strong  ar- 
mament of  nineteen  guns,  they  prepared  for  action. 
The  post  assigned  to  Bowditch  was  the  cabin,  and  his 
duty  was  to  hand  the  powder  upon  deck.  In  the 
midst  of  the  preparations  for  the  engagement,  Captain 
Prince  had  a  curiosity  to  look  into  the  cabin,  and  see 
whether  all  things  were  going  on  right  there;  and,  to 
his  astonishment,  he  found  Bowditch  calmly  sitting  at 
the  table,  with  his  slate  and  pencil,  and  figuring  away, 
as  usual.  The  thing  was  so  ludicrous,  that  Captain 
Prince  burst  out  a  laughing,  and  said,  "Well,  Mr. 
Bowditch,  can  you  be  making  your  will  now  ? " 


28 

"  Yes,"  was  his  good-natured  reply.  After  this  affair, 
(the  French  privateer  having  hauled  off  without  mo- 
lesting them)  the  supercargo  requested  to  be  stationed 
at  one  of  the  guns,  and  his  request  was  granted. 
Captain  Prince  testifies,  that  in  all  cases  of  danger, 
he  manifested  great  firmness  and  presence  of  mind. 

The  fourth  and  last  voyage  which  they  made  to- 
gether, was  in  the  same  ship,  from  Boston  to  Batavia 
and  Manilla.  They  sailed  in  August,  1799,  and  arrived 
there  in  September,  1800. 

On  their  arrival  at  Manilla,  a  Scotchman,  by  the  name 
of  Murray,  asked  Captain  Prince  how  he  contrived  to 
find  the  way  there,  through  such  a  long,  perplexing,  and 
dangerous  navigation,  and  in  the  face  of  the  north-east 
monsoon,  by  mere  dead  reckoning,  without  the  use 
of  lunars, — it  being  a  common  notion  at  that  time,  that 
the  Americans  knew  nothing  about  working  lunar  ob- 
servations. Captain  Prince  told  him  that  he  had  a  crew 
of  twelve  men,  every  one  of  whom  could  take  and 
work  a  lunar  observation  as  well,  for  all  practical  purpo- 
ses, as  Sir  Isaac  Newton  himself,  were  he  alive.  Mur- 
ray was  perfectly  astounded  at  this,  and  actually  went 
down  to  the  landing-place  one  Sunday  morning  to  see 
this  knowing  crew  come  ashore.* 


*  One  of  the  most  characteristic  and  amusing  nautical  anecdotes 
that  it  has  ever  been  my  good  fortune  to  meet  with,  is  contained  in  the 
fourth  volume  of  Baron  Zach's  "  Correspondance  Astronomique"  page  62. 


29 

Mr.  Bowditch  was  present  at  this  conversation,  and 
as  Captain  Prince  says,  sat  "  as  modest  as  a  maid,"  said 
not  a  word,  but  held  his  slate-pencil  in  his  mouth. 
Another  person  on  the  island,  a  broker,  by  the  name  of 

It  is  so  good  that  I  thought  it  worth  translating,  and  now  venture  to  ap- 
pend it  in  a  note,  notwithstanding  its  length.  The  Baron  is  relating  the 
sensation  caused  at  Genoa,  by  the  arrival  there,  in  1817,  of  that  splendid 
packet,  the  "  Cleopatra's  Barge,"  owned  by  George  Crowninshield,  Esq.  of 
Salem.  He  says  that  he  went  on  board,  with  all  the  world,  "  and  it  hap- 
pened," to  use  his  own  words,  "  that  in  inquiring  after  my  friends  and 
correspondents  at  Philadelphia  and  Boston,  I  mentioned,  among  others, 
the  name  of  Mr.  Bowditch.  'He  is  a  friend  of  our  family  and  our  neigh- 
bor at  Salem,'  replied  the  captain,  a  smart,  little  old  man, '  and  that  young 
man  whom  you  see  there,  my  son,  was  his  pupil ;  in  fact,  it  is  he,  and  not 
myself,  who  navigates  the  ship.  Question  him  a  little,  and  see  if  he  has 
learnt  any  thing.'  Our  dialogue  was  as  follows  : — '  You  have  had  an  ex- 
cellent teacher  of  navigation,  young  man ;  and  you  could  not  well  help 
being  a  good  scholar.  In  making  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  what  was  the 
error  in  your  reckoning  ?  '  The  young  man  replied, '  Six  miles.'  '  You 
must  then  have  got  your  longitude  very  accurately  ;  how  did  you  get  it  ?  ' 
*  Hirst  by  our  chronometers,  and  afterwards  by  lunar  distances.'  '  What ! 
do  you  know  how  to  take  and  calculate  the  longitude  by  lunar  distances  ?' 
The  young  captain  seemed  somewhat  nettled  at  my  question,  and 
answered  me  with  a  scornful  smile — '  1  know  how  to  calculate  the  lon- 
gitude !  Why,  our  cook  can  do  that !  '  '  Your  cook  !  '  Here  the  owner 
of  the  ship  and  the  old  captain  assured  me  that  the  cook  on  board  could 
calculate  the  longitude  very  well,  that  he  had  a  taste  and  passion  for  it, 
and  did  it  every  day.  *  There  he  is,'  said  the  young  man,  pointing  with 
his  finger  to  a  negro  at  the  stern  of  the  ship,  with  a  white  apron  before 
him,  and  holding  a  chicken  in  one  hand  and  a  butcher's  knife  in  the 
other.  '  Come  forward,  Jack,'  said  the  captain  to  him;  '  the  gentleman 
is  surprised  that  you  can  calculate  the  longitude ;  answer  his  questions.' 
I  asked  him,  *  What  method  do  you  use  to  calculate  the  longitude  by 
lunar  distances  ? '  His  answer  was,  '  It's  all  one  to  me :  I  use  the 
methods  of  Maskelyne,  Lyons,  Witchel,  and  Bowditch ;  but,  upon  the 


30 

Kean,  who  was  present,  said  to  Murray,  "If  you  knew 
as  much  as  I  do  about  that  ship  Astraea,  you  would'nt 
talk*  quite  so  glib."  "  Why  not  ?  what  do  you  know 
about  her  ?  "  "  Why,  sir,  I  know  that  there  is  more 
knowledge  of  navigation  on  board  that  ship,  than  there 
ever  was  in  all  the  vessels  that  ever  floated  in  Manilla 
Bay." 

The  knowledge  which  these  common  sailors  had  ac- 
quired of  navigation,  had  been  imparted  to  them  by  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Bowditch.  Captain  Prince  says  that 
one  day  the  supercargo  said  to  him,  "Come,  Captain, 
let  us  go  forward  and  see  what  the  sailors  are  talking 
about,  under  the  lee  of  the  long-boat."  They  went 
forward  accordingly,  and  the  Captain  was  surprised  to 
find  the  sailors,  instead  of  spinning  their  long  yarns, 


whole,  I  prefer  Dunthorne's ;  I  am  more  used  to  it,  and  can  work  with  it 
quicker.'  I  could  not  express  my  surprise  at  hearing  this  black  face 
talk  in  this  way,  with  his  bloody  chicken  and  knife  in  his  hand. 
'  Go,'  said  Mr.  Crowninshield  to  him,  '  lay  down  your  chicken,  bring 
your  books  and  your  journal,  and  show  the  gentleman  your  calcu- 
lations.' The  cook  soon  returned  with  his  books  under  his  arm.  He  had 
Bowditch's  Practical  Navigator,  The  Requisite  Tables,  Hutton's  Tables 
of  Logarithms,  and  the  Nautical  Almanac.  I  saw  all  this  negro's  calcu- 
lations of  the  latitude,  the  longitude,  and  the  true  time,  which  he  had 
worked  out  on  the  passage.  He  answered  all  my  questions  with  won- 
derful accuracy,  not  in  the  Latin  of  the  caboose,  but  in  the  good  set 
terms  of  navigation.  This  cook  had  been  round  the  world,  as  cabin- 
boy,  with  Captain.  Cook  in  his  last  voyage,  and  was  well  acquainted  with 
the  particulars  of  his  assassination  at  Owhyhee,  on  the  14th  of  February, 
1779." 


31 

earnestly  engaged  with  book,  slate  and  pencil,  and  dis- 
cussing the  high  matters  of  ta'ngents  and  secants,  alti- 
tudes, dip,  and  refraction.  Two  of  them,  in  particular, 
were  very  zealously  disputing,  one  of  them  calling  out 
to  the  other,  "  Well,  Jack,  what  have  you  got  ?"  "  I've 
got  the  sine"  was  the  answer.  " But  that  an't  right," 
said  the  other,  "/say  it  is  the  cosine."  * 

I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  corroborate  the  statements 
of  Captain  Prince,  by  the  testimony  of  a  gallant  officerf 
in  our  navy,  who  sailed  in  the  Astraa  the  two  last 
voyages  to  Alicant  and  Batavia.  In  a  letter  recently 
written,  with  the  sight  of  which  I  have  been  favored, 
after  speaking  in  terms  of  the  warmest  gratitude  of  the 
kindness  and  attention  with  which  Mr.  Bowditch 
treated  him,  when  a  poor  sea-sick  cabin-boy,  and  ac- 


*  Besides  these  four  voyages  with  Captain  Prince,  Dr.  Bowditch  made 
two  others,  as  I  have  before  remarked,  the  last  in  the  combined  capacities 
of  supercargo  and  master.  Captain  Prince  says,  that  although  he  had 
such  a  thorough  knowledge  of  navigation,  he  knew  but  little  about  what 
is  technically  called  seamanship.  He  also  mentions  the  fact,  which  he 
had  often  heard  him  repeat,  that  although,  in  his  youth,  he  had  long 
lived  in  the  vicinity  of  the  ship-yards,  he  had  never  seen  a  launch ;  and 
rather  scouted  the  idea  that  such  a  sight,  or  any  thing  like  it,  should  be 
able  to  draw  him  away  from  his  books.  Captain  Prince  likewise  testi- 
fies that  during  the  whole  course  of  these  four  voyages,  he  does  not  re- 
collect the  slightest  interruption  of  harmony  and  good  feeling  between 
them. 

t  Charles  F.  Waldo,  Esq.  sailing-master  in  the  United  States'  Navy, 
now  stationed  at  the  Navy  Yard  in  Charlestown.  He  was  wounded  in 
the  engagement  between  the  Constitution  and  the  Java. 


32 

knowledging  his  great  obligations  to  him  for  instructing 
him  in  navigation,  he  goes  on  to  say  that  it  was  Mr. 
Bowditch's  practice  to  interest  himself  in  all  the  sailors 
on  board,  and  to  take  pains  to  instruct  all  who  could  read 
and  write,  in  the  principles  of  navigation.  The  conse- 
quence of  this  was,  that  every  one  of  those  twelve 
sailors,  who  could  read  and  write,  subsequently  rose  to 
the  rank  of  captain  or  chief  mate  of  a  ship.  Indeed, 
at  Salem,  it  was  considered  the  highest  recommenda- 
tion of  a  seaman,  that  he  had  sailed  in  the  same  ship 
with  Mr.  Bowditch,  and  this  fact  alone  was  often  suffi- 
cient to  procure  for  him  an  officer's  berth.  In  illustration 
of  this .  statement,  he  mentions  the  fact  that  on  his 
second  voyage  the  first  and  second  mates  had  been  sail- 
ors in  the  same  ship  on  the  previous  voyage.  He  also 
speaks  of  Mr.  Bowditch's  urbane  and  gentlemanly  de- 
portment to  every  one  on  board,  and  says  that  he  never 
appeared  so  happy  as  when  he  could  inspire  the  sailor 
with  a  proper  sense  of  his  individual  importance,  and  of 
the  talents  he  possessed,  and  might  call  into  action. 

Capt.  Prince  relates  a  little  incident  that  occurred 
under  his  observation,  that  is  worth  preserving.  In 
the  year  1796,  there  was  an  Englishman  in  Boston, 
who  called  himself  a  professor  of  mathematics.  He 
boasted  a  great  deal  about  his  mathematical  knowledge, 
and  said  that  he  had  not  found  any  body  in  this  country 
who  knew  any  thing  about  the  science.  "I  have  a1 
question,"  said  he,  "  which  I  have  proposed  to  several 
persons  here  who  are  reputed  the  most  knowing,  and 


33 

they  cannot  solve  it."  This  Englishman  was  a  friend 
of  E.  H.  Derby,  Jr.  of  Salem,  to  whom  Capt.  Prince 
had  some  time  previously  said  that  he  thought  Mr. 
Bowditch  "the  greatest  calculator  in  America."  Mr. 
Derby  and  the  Englishman  being  one  evening  at  the 
theatre,  and  the  latter  repeating  the  remark  about  his 
question,  "  Well,"  says  Mr.  Derby,  "  there  is  a  young 
man  sitting  opposite  in  that  box,  who,  I  think,  will  do  it 
for  you.  You  had  better  hand  it  over  to  him."  Accord- 
ingly, after  the  play  was  over,  the  problem  was  brought 
to  the  house  where  Capt.  Prince  and  Mr.  Bowditch 
boarded,  by  a  man  named  Hughes,  who  asked  him 
whether  he  thought  he  could  solve  it.  "  Yes,"  wras  his 
instantaneous  reply.  The  next  morning  Hughes  called 
and  asked  him  how  he  got  along  with  the  question. 
"I've  done  it,"  says  Mr.  Bowditch,  and  I  wish  you 
would  tell  the  Englishman  that  the  answer  is  the  loga- 
rithm of  such  a  number,"  naming  it.  In  addition  to  this, 
I  have  heard  that  the  American  mathematician  said, 
"Tell  your  friend  that  I  have  got  a  question  which  puz- 
zled me  once  a  good  while  before  I  could  make  it  out, 
and  I  should  like  to  have  him  try  his  hand  upon  it."  He 
gave  him  the  question,  and  it  was  handed  over  to  the 
Englishman ;  but  nothing  more  was  heard  of  it.  For 
once,  he  had  probably  got  enough  of  mathematics.* 


*  I  have  heard  it  said  that  the  name  of  this  Englishman  was  Nichols, 
a  bookseller,  the  same  who  published  an  edition  of  Playfair's  Geometry 
in  Boston. 

5 


34 

Capt.  Prince  states  some  facts  in  relation  to  the  origin 
of  one  of  Mr.  Bowditch's  principal  works,  which  will  be 
interesting  to  all,  particularly  to  all  seafaring  men,  for 
whose  especial  benefit  I  record  them.  Every  thing  re- 
lating to  "  The  Sailor's  Own  Book  "  must  be  acceptable 
to  them.  He  states  that  on  the  day  previous  to  their  sailing 
on  their  fourth  and  last  voyage  together,  Mr.  Edmund  M. 
Blunt,*  a  noted  publisher  of  charts  and  nautical  books, 
then  residing  at  Newburyport,  came  to  Boston,  where 
the  ship  lay,  on  purpose  to  see  Mr.  Bowditch.  In  the 
course  of  the  conversation  between  them,  which  Capt. 
Prince  overheard,  Mr.  Blunt  said,  "If  you  had  not  cor- 
rected the  declination,  I  should  have  lost  the  whole  of 
the  last  edition ;"  meaning  the  last  edition  of  John  Ham- 
ilton Moore's  book  on  Navigation,  then  in  common  use 
on  board  our  vessels.  "  Why,"  continued  he,  "  can't 
you  be  good  enough  to  look  over  Hamilton  Moore  again, 
more  carefully  1  Take  a  copy  of  it  with  you,  and  mark 
whatever  you  may  find  ;  and  when  you  get  home,  I  will 
give  you  a  new  one."  "  Well,"  replied  Mr.  Bowditch, 
"  I  will."  On  the  home  passage  Capt.  Prince  says  that 
Mr.  Bowditch  remarked  to  him,  "  Now  I  am  going  to 
assist  Blunt,  and  begin  with  Hamilton  Moore."  When 
he  had  been  engaged  upon  it  several  days,  Capt.  Prince 


*  Mr.  Blunt  subsequently  removed  to  the  city  of  New  York,  where  he 
pursued  the  same  line  of  business,  and  became  the  principal  nautical 
publisher  in  the  United  States.  He  now  resides  at  Sing  Sing,  and  the 
business  is  carried  on  by  his  sons. 


35 

passed  by  him  in  the  cabin,  and  said,  "  Well,  sir,  you 
seem  to  put  a  great  many  black  marks  on  Johnny  Moore." 
"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Bowditch,  "  and  well  I  may,  for  he 
deserves  it ;  his  book  is  nothing  but  a  tissue  .  of  errors 
from  beginning  to  end."  *  After  he  had  been  hard  at 
work  for  some  time,  Capt  Prince  said  to  him,  "If  I  were 
you,  I  would  sooner  make  a  new  book  than  undertake 
to  mend  that  old  thing."  Mr.  Bowditch  smiled  and  said, 
"  I  find  so  many  errors  that  I  intend  to  take  out  the 
work  in  my  own  name."  Capt.  Prince  closed  the  con- 
versation by  adding,  "  I  think  you  ought  to  do  so,  for 
the  work  will  be  new,  and  the  fruit  of  your  own  labor, 


*  As  an  illustration  of  the  dangerous  blunders  of  Moore's  work,  I  will 
mention  a  fact  related  to  me  by  my  worthy  parishioner  and  friend, 
John  Waters,  Esq.  of  this  city.  He  states  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1800,  he  was  returning  from  Canton  in  the  ship  Eliza,  and  that  some- 
where this  side  of  the  Cape  (he  thinks  off  the  West  India  Islands),  in 
taking  the  sun's  declination  one  day,  they  turned  to  Moore's  "  Table  XVII. 
of  The  Sun's  Declination  for  the  years  1792,  1796,  1800, 1804,"  to  which 
the  stupid  fellow  had  appended  the  remark,  "  each  being  leap  year"  In 
consequence  of  thus  erroneously  making  1800  a  leap  year,  he  gives  the 
declination  on  the  1st  of  March  7°  11',  whereas  by  reference  to  the 
Nautical  Almanac  of  that  year  it  will  be  found  to  be  7°  33',  mak- 
ing a  difference  of  twenty-three  miles.  Mr.  Waters  fortunately  had  a  Nau- 
tical Almanac  on  board,  and  likewise  a  copy  of  Pike's  Arithmetic,  which 
explained  the  reason  why  the  year  1800  was  not  leap  year.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  he  escaped  the  dangers  to  which  other  vessels  in  the  same 
latitude  were  subjected ;  for  he  afterwards  read  in  the  newspapers  of 
several  ships  that  were  wrecked  solely  by  reason  of  that  blunder.  It 
was,  indeed,  quite  time  for  Hamilton  Moore  to  be  laid  up,  high  and 
dry,  on  the  shelf.  Mr.  Waters's  copy  of  Moore,  the  tenth  edition,  he  has 
shown  me,  and  kindly  explained  to  me  the  error.  I  hope  I  have  made 
it  intelligible  to  other  landsmen. 


36 

and  will  be  the  best  work  on  navigation  ever  published ;" 
a  prediction  that  was  wonderfully  fulfilled  to  the  letter.* 
Such  was  the  germ  of  "  The  New  American  Practical 
Navigator,"  the  first  edition  of  which  he  issued  in  the 
year  1800,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  ;  a  work  abound- 
ing with  the  actual  results  of  his  own  experience,  and 
containing  simpler  and  more  expeditious  formulas  for 
working  the  nautical  problems.f  This  work  has  been  of 
immense  service  to  the  nautical  and  commercial  interests 
of  this  country.  Had  Dr.  Bowditch  never  done  any 
thing  else,  he  would  still,  by  this  single  act,  have  confer- 
red a  lasting  obligation  upon  his  native  land ;  and  the 
national  legislature  might  well  acknowledge  it  by  erecting 
a  monument  to  his  memory.  Just  consider  the  simple 


*  The  anecdotes  relating  to  the  early  and  the  nautical  life  of  Dr.  Bow- 
ditch  have  been  collected  since  the  Discourse  was  delivered.  It  was 
thought  best,  however,  to  insert  them  in  their  place,  in  the  body  of  the 
Discourse,  in  order  to  furnish  a  continuous  narrative.  Those  relating  to 
the  voyages  of  Capt.  Prince  were  lately  taken  down  from  that  gentle- 
man's own  lips  by  the  Hon.  JOHN  PICKERING,  of  this  city,  who  has  very 
kindly  favored  me  with  the  minutes,  from  which  the  present  narrative  is 
drawn  up.  Mr.  Pickering,  who,  for  many  years,  enjoyed  the  intimacy 
and  friendship  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  has  been  appointed  by  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  to  pronounce  the  Eulogy  before  that  body 
in  May  next.  The  choice  could  not  have  fallen  in  a  better  place,  and  the 
Academy  may  then  expect  a  full  and  adequate  exposition  of  the  scientific 
attainments  and  labors  of  their  distinguished  President. 

f  Before  publishing  his  own  work,  Mr.  Bowditch  had  prepared  for  Mr. 
Blunt  two  corrected  editions  of  Moore's  book,  in  which  he  had  actually 
discovered  and  corrected  eight  thousand  errors  in  the  nautical  tables,  as  he 
himself  testifies  in  the  preface  to  the  last  stereotype  edition. 


37 

fact,  that  every  vessel  that  sails  from  the  ports  of  the 
United  States,  from  Eastport  to  New  Orleans,  is  navigated 
by  the  rules  and  tables  of  his  book.  And  this  has  been 
the  case  nearly  ever  since  its  publication,  thirty-eight 
years  ago.  I  am  also  informed,  that  it  is  extensively 
used  in  the  British  and  French  navies.  Notwith- 
standing the  competition  of  other  English  and  American 
works  on  the  subject,  "  The  Practical  Navigator "  has 
never  been  superseded.  It  has  kept  pace  with  the 
progress  of  nautical  science,  and  incorporated  all  its  suc- 
cessive discoveries  and  results ;  and  the  last  edition, 
published  within  the  last  year,  contains  new  tables  and 
other  improvements,  which  will  probably  secure  its  un- 
divided use  by  our  seamen  for  years  to  come.* 


*  "  In  preparing  this  edition,"  he  says,  "  I  have  been  very  much  as- 
sisted by  my  son,  J.  INGERSOLL  BOWDITCH,  who  compiled  most  of  the 
new  tables,  and  carefully  examined  those  which  were  taken  from  other 
works.  By  associating  him  with  me,  many  improvements  have  been 
made  which  otherwise  would  not  have  been  introduced." 

In  compiling  "  The  Navigator,"  he  was  essentially  aided  by  a  series 
of  manuscript  journals,  preserved  in  the  East  India  Museum  at  Salem.  It 
is  one  of  the  regulations  of  the  East  India  Marine  Society,  to  whom  that 
splendid  collection  belongs,  that  each  member  shall  keep  a  journal  of 
every  thing  remarkable  that  has  occurred,  and  that  he  has  observed,  during 
his  voyage.  On  his  return  his  journal  is  examined  by  a  special  commit- 
tee, who  extract  whatever  they  think  valuable,  and  copy  it  into  large  vol- 
umes, kept  for  that  purpose.  Dr.  Bowditch  was  accustomed  to  say,  that 
these  volumes  contained  a  mass  of  nautical  information  that  could  be 
fouDd  no  where  else  in  the  world. 

On  the  13th  of  May,  1801,  a  committee,  appointed  by  the  East 
India  Marine  Society,  reported  that  "  after  a  full  examination  of  the 


38 

The  quiet  and  leisure  of  the  long  East  India  voyages, 
when  the  ship  was  lazily  sweeping  along  under  the 
steady  impulse  of  the  trade-winds,  afforded  him  fine 
opportunities  for  pursuing  his  mathematical  studies,  as 
well  as  for  indulging  his  taste  for  general  literature.  It 


System  of  Navigation  presented  to  the  Society  by  one  of  its  members, 
(Mr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch)  they  find  that  he  has  corrected  many  thousand 
errors  existing  in  the  best  European  works  of  the  kind ;  especially  those 
in  the  tables  for  determining  the  latitude  by  two  altitudes,  in  those  of 
difference  of  latitude  and  departure,  of  the  sun's  right  ascension,  of  am- 
plitudes, and  many  others  necessary  to  the  navigator.  Mr.  Bowditch 
has  likewise,  in  many  instances,  greatly  improved  the  old  methods  of 
calculation,  and  added  new  ones  of  his  own.  That  of  clearing  the  ap- 
parent distance  of  the  moon,  and  sun,  or  stars,  from  the  effect  of  parallax 
and  refraction,  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  use  of  seamen  in  general,  and 
is  much  facilitated  (as  all  other  methods  are)  in  the  present  work,  by  the 
introduction  of  a  proportional  table  into  that  of  the  corrections  of  the 
moon's  altitude.  His  table  nineteenth  of  corrections  to  be  applied  in  the 
lunar  calculations,  has  the  merit  of  being  the  only  one  the  committee  are 
acquainted  with.  He  has  much  improved  the  table  of  latitudes  and  lon- 
gitudes of  places,  and  has  added  those  of  a  number  on  the  American 
coast  hitherto  very  inaccurately  ascertained.  This  work  therefore  is,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  committee,  highly  deserving  of  the  approbation  and 
encouragement  of  the  Society,  not  only  as  being  the  most  correct  and 
ample  now  extant,  but  as  being  a  genuine  American  production ;  and  as 
such  they  hesitate  not  to  recommend  it  to  the  attention  of  navigators, 
and  of  the  public  at  large."  This  is  signed  by  Jonathan  Lambert,  Ben- 
jamin Carpenter,  John  Osgood,  John  Gibaut  and  Jacob  Crowninshield, 
Committee. 

In  two  voyages  across  the  Atlantic,  which  I  made  in  1834,  I  found 
myself  often  poring  over  the  mate's  "  Practical  Navigator,"  and,  omitting 
the  tables  and  the  rules  for  taking  and  working  lunars,  and  a  few  other 
things  of  the  same  sort,  I  found  it  quite  a  readable  book,  and  about  as 
interesting  as  any  on  board. 


39 

was  at  these  times  that  he  learnt  the  French*  and 
Spanish  languages,  without  any  instructed  Subse- 
quently in  life  he  acquired  the  German  and  the  Italian. 
He  had  previously  commenced  the  study  of  Latin  at 
the  age  of  seventeen.  The  first  Latin  book  that  he 
undertook  to  read  was  a  copy  of  Euclid's  Geometry, 
which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Byles,t 
of  Boston,  and  having  been  purchased  at  the  sale  of 
his  books,  was  presented  to  the  young  mathematician 
by  his  brother-in-law,  David  Martin,  of  Salem.J  The  fol- 
lowing words  I  copy  from  the  blank  leaf  in  the  beginning 
of  the  book,  "Began  to  study  Latin  Jan.  4,  1790." 
He  afterwards  read  Newton's  "Principia,"a  copy  of  which 
book,  rare,  doubtless,  at  that  time  in  this  country,  had 

*  I  have  heard  it  stated,  that,  on  the  voyage  to  Manilla,  the  ship  sprung 
a  leak,  and  was  obliged  to  put  into  the  Isle  of  France  to  refit.  Young 
Bowditch  was  the  only  one  on  board  who  knew  any  thing  about  French, 
having  learnt  it  from  his  grammar  on  the  voyage ;  and  this  casual  know- 
ledge thus  proved  of  essential  service  to  the  interests  of  the  owners,  as 
well  as  to  the  crew  of  the  ship.  He  used  to  say  that  nothing  that  he 
learnt  ever  came  amiss. 

f  Dr.  Bowditch  mentioned  this  fact  one  day  as  he  was  walking  up 
Common  (then  Nassau)  street,  with  Dr.  George  Hayward,  of  this  city, 
and  expressed  a  desire  to  see  the  house  where  the  eccentric  owner  of  this 
book  had  lived.  The  book  is  now  in  his  library. 

t  David  Martin  married  Mary,  the  eldest  sister  of  Dr.  Bowditch.  She 
died  in  1808,  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  when  her  only  child,  and  the  only 
surviving  descendant  of  the  male  line  of  his  family,  with  the  exception 
of  his  own  six  children,  was  received  into  his  house  and  treated  as  his 
own  child,  as  appears  from  this  item  in  his  will :  "  Whereas  my  niece, 
Elizabeth  Bowditch  Martin,  has  from  youth  resided  in  my  family  and 
been  to  me  as  a  daughter,"  &c.  I  have  so  regarded  and  comprehended 
her  in  the  Dedication  of  this  Discourse. 


40 

come  into  his  possession  through  the  kindness  of  the 
learned  and  reverend  Dr.  Bentley,  of  Salem.  Dr.  Bent- 
ley  told  him  that  he  could  not  give  him. the  book,  as  it 
had  been  presented  to  him  by  a  friend,  but  said  he 
would  loan  it  to  him,  and  that  he  might  keep  it  till  it 
was  called  for.  He  did  keep  it ;  it  was  never  called  for ; 
it  is  still  among  his  books ;  and  Dr.  Bowditch  has  more 
than  once  taken  it  down  from  the  shelf  and  showed  it  to 
me.* 

What  he  once  learned  he  ever  afterwards  remem- 
bered, and  it  may  be  mentioned  as  an  instance  of  the 
singular  tenacity  of  his  memory,  that,  on  lately  reading 
the  splendid  "  History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,"  f  the  last  book  he  read  through,  and  one  for 


*  This  is  Dr.  Bowditch's  own  account  of  the  mode  in  which  he  came 
into  possession  of  this  book,  which  his  own  family,  as  well  as  myself, 
recollect  to  have  heard  often  from  his  lips  ;  and,  moreover,  the  fact  is  so 
recorded,  by  his  direction,  in  the  catalogue  of  his  library.  But  a  very 
respectable  merchant  of  Salem  informs  me  that  Dr.  Bentley  gave  him 
the  book,  and  he  loaned  it,  in  the  manner  above-mentioned,  to  Mr.  Bow- 
ditch.  Strict  regard  for  accuracy  leads  me  to  append  this  statement. 

f  By  WILLIAM  H.  PRESCOTT,  Esq.  This  noble  contribution  to  the 
youthful  literature  of  our  country  is,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  instances,  in  literary  history,  of  the  triumph  of  genius  over 
difficulties  and  discouragements.  It  seems  almost  incredible,  that  so  ex- 
tensive a  work,  demanding  the  perusal  of  so  many  books,  and  the  consul- 
tation of  so  many  authorities,  could  have  been  composed  without  the  full 
and  free  use  of  the  eyes.  And  yet  it  is  a  fact  known  to  me,  that  the  author, 
although  he  wrote  the  book  through  with  his  own  hand,  never  saw  the 
words  while  he  was  writing  them.  His  work  is  a  noble  evidence  of  his 
perseverance  as  well  as  of  his  learning  and  good  taste,  and  reflects  honor 
upon  himself  as  well  as  upon  his  country. 


41 

which  he  expressed  the  highest  admiration,  he  re- 
marked that  many  of  the  incidents  in  it  were  quite  fa- 
miliar to  him,  he  having  once  read  the  great  work 
of  Mariana  on  the  History  of  Spain,  in  the  original  lan- 
guage, in  the  course  of  one  of  his  voyages.  The 
French  mathematician,  Lacroix,  acknowledged  to  a 
young  American  that  he  was  indebted  to  Mr.  Bow- 
ditch  for  communicating  many  errors  in  his  works, 
which  he  had  discovered  in  these  same  long  India 
voyages. . 

In  the  year  1806,  Mr.  Bowditch  published  his  accu- 
rate and  beautiful  chart  of  the  harbors  of  Salem,  Beverly, 
Marblehead,  and  Manchester,  the  survey  of  which  had 
occupied  him  during  the  summers  of  the  three  preced- 
ing years.  So  minutely  accurate  was  this  chart,  that 
the  old  pilots  said  he  had  found  out  all  their  professional 
secrets,  and  had  put  on  paper  points  and  bearings 
which  they  thought  were  known  only  to  themselves. 
They  began  to  fear  that  their,  services  would  no  longer 
be  needed,  and  that  their  occupation  and  their  bread 
were  gone.* 

The  extraordinary  mathematical  attainments  of  the 
young  sailor  soon  became  known,  and  secured  to  him 


*  Dr.  Bowditch  took  great  delight  in  every  accurate  scientific  work  of 
this  sort ;  and  I  recollect  his  speaking,  in  terms  of  the  highest  admira- 
tion, of  the  survey  of  George's  Shoal,  recently  made  by  the  accomplished 
Lieut.  Wilkes.  He  described  it  to  me  one  evening  very  minutely,  told 
me  how  it  had  been  done,  and  spoke  in  the  warmest  manner  of  the 
science  and  skill  which  it  evinced. 

6 


42 

the  notice  of  our  most  distinguished  men, — among  others 
that  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Parsons,  himself  an  em- 
inent mathematician, — and  likewise  the  deserved,  yet 
wholly  unexpected,  honors  of  the  first  literary  institution 
in  the  land.  In  the  summer  of  1802,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-nine,  his  ship  lying  wind-bound  in  this  port,  he 
went  out  to  Cambridge  to  attend  the  exercises  of  Com- 
mencement Day;  and  whilst  standing  in  one  of  the 
aisles  of  the  church,  as  the  President  was  announcing 
the  honorary  degrees  conferred  that  day,  his  attention 
was  aroused  by  hearing  his  own  name  called  out  as  a 
Master  of  Arts.  The  annunciation  came  upon  him  like 
a  peal  of  thunder ;  it  took  him  wholly  by  surprise.  He 
has  been  heard  to  say  that  that  was  the  proudest  day 
of  his  life ;  and  that  of  all  the  distinctions  which 
he  subsequently  received  from  numerous  learned  and 
scientific  bodies,  at  home  and  abroad,*  (among  which 
may  be  mentioned  his  election  as  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  London,  an  honor  to  which  few  Ameri- 
cans have  ever  attained),  there  was  not  one  which  af- 
forded him  half  the  pleasure,  or  which  he  prized  half  so 
highly,  as  this  degree  from  Harvard.  It  was,  indeed, 


*  Dr.  Bowditch  was  President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  from  1829  to  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  also  a  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  Societies  of  Edinburgh  and  Dublin ;  of  the  Astronomical  Soci- 
ety of  London ;  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  held  at  Philadel- 
phia ;  of  the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences ;  of  the  Literary 
and  Philosophical  Society  of  New  York ;  Corresponding  Member  of  the 
Royal  Societies  at  Berlin,  Palermo,  &c.  &c.  &c. 


43 

his  first  honor,  his  earliest  distinction  ;  it  was  not  only 
kindly  meant,  but  timely  done  ;  and  it  no  doubt  stimu- 
lated him  to  perseverance  in  his  scientific  pursuits,  as 
well  as  created  that  interest  which  he  always  took  in  the 
prosperity  of  that  institution. 

On  quitting  the  sea,  in  1804,  he  became  the  Presi- 
dent of  a  Marine  Insurance  Company  in  Salem,*  the 
duties  of  which  he  continued  to  discharge  till  the  year 
1823,  when,  on  the  establishment  of  "The  Massachu- 
setts Hospital  Life  Insurance  Company,"  in  this  place, 
he  was  elected  to  the  office,  being  considered  the  per- 
son best  qualified  for. this  highly  responsible  station, 
from  his  habits  of  accurate  calculation  and  rigid  method, 


*  While  residing  at  Salem  he  was  frequently  solicited  to  accept  posts 
of  honor  and  emolument  in  various  literary  institutions,  in  different  parts 
of  the  country.  Though  his  salary  as  President  of  the  Insurance  Com- 
pany was  small,  being  only  twelve  hundred  dollars,  yet  the  larger  offers 
from  a  distance  could  not  induce  him  to  leave  his  blessed  New  England 
home.  Thus  in  1806,  he  was  chosen  to  fill  the  Hollis  Professorship  of 
Mathematics  at  Harvard  University,  vacated  by  the  promotion  of  Pro- 
fessor "Webber  to  the  Presidency.  In  1818,  he  received  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Jefferson,  requesting  him  to  accept  the  Professorship  of  Mathematics 
in  the  new  University  at  Charlottesville,  in  Virginia.  Mr.  Jefferson  says 
in  his  letter  (which  is  now  before  me),  "  We  are  satisfied  we  can  get 
from  no  country  a  Professor  of  higher  qualifications  than  yourself  for  our 
mathematical  department."  And  in  1820,  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Ellicott, 
Professor  of  Mathematics  at  the  United  States'  Military  Academy  at 
West  Point,  he  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Calhoun,  then  Secretary  of 
War,  desiring  him  to  permit  his  name  to  be  presented  to  the  President 
to  fill  the  vacant  chair.  Mr.  Calhoun  says  in  that  letter  (which  also  I 
have  now  before  me),  "  I  am  anxious  to  avail  myself  of  the  first  mathe- 
matical talents  and  acquirements  to  fill  the  vacancy." 


44 

and  his  inflexible  integrity.  Immediately  on  accepting 
the  office  he  removed  to  this  city  at  the  age  of  fifty,  and 
has  here  spent  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life. 

It  scarcely  needs  to  be  stated  that  he  discharged  the 
duties  of  his  high  trust  with  the  greatest  fidelity  and 
skill,  and  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  Company. 
The  capital  was  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  But,  at 
his  suggestion,  the  Company  applied  to  the  Legislature 
for  additional  power  to  hold  in  trust  and  loan  out  the 
property  of  individuals.  This  power  was  granted  ;  and 
upwards  of  five  millions  of  dollars,  nine  tenths  of  which 
belong  to  females  and  orphans,  have  been  thus  received 
and  invested.  This  institution  has,  in  this  way,  been  of 
incalculable  service,  it  being  in  fact  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  a  Savings  Bank  on  a  large  scale.  "  Provi- 
dence " — I  use  his  own  language,  in  his  parting  letter  to 
the  Directors — "  has  seen  fit  to  bless  our  efforts  to  make 
it  an  institution  deserving  of  public  regard."  It  deserves 
to  be  mentioned,  that  Dr.  Bowditch  was  never  willing 
to  receive  and  tie  up  any  investment,  without  himself 
seeing  or  hearing  in  writing  from  the  person  in  whose 
behalf  the  investment  was  to  be  made,  and  ascertaining 
that  it  was  done  with  his  or  her  full  and  free  consent, 
and  that  the  individual  perfectly  understood  the  mode 
and  conditions  of  the  investment,  before  it  was  put  into 
the  dead  hand  of  the  institution. 

I  may  here  also  notice  the  fact,  perhaps  not  generally 
known,  that  during  the  late  unexampled  commercial 
embarrassments  and  financial  difficulties,  when  almost 


45 

all  our  moneyed  institutions  have  sustained  heavy  losses 
from  the  bankruptcies  of  their  debtors,  "  and,"  to  use 
his  own  words  in  the  same  letter,  "  by  having  dealt  with 
corporations,  whose  affairs  have  been  managed  with  a 
recklessness  which  has  never  before  been  witnessed  in 
this  country,"  yet  so  carefully  and  skilfully  have  the  af- 
fairs of  The  Life  Office  been  managed,  that,  although  the 
largest  moneyed  institution  in  New  England,  having  a 
capital  equal  to  ten  common  banks,  and  with  a  loan  out 
of  six  millions,  its  loss  has  not  been  greater  than  that 
sustained  by  some  of  the  smallest  banks. 

It  was  a  hard  struggle  for  Dr.  Bowditch  to  break 
away  from  the  pleasant  scenes  and  associations  of  his 
native  place.  There  were  his  earliest  friends,  and  there 
his  strongest  ties.  But  he  felt  that  he  owed  it  to  his 
family  to  make  the  sacrifice  of  personal  attachments  and 
preferences ;  and  for  some  time  he  and  his  amiable  con- 
sort fondly  cherished  the  hope,  of  returning  and  spend- 
ing their  last  days  in  the  City  of  Peace.*  Soon  after  his 
coming  to  town  he  joined  this  religious  society,  and  here 
continued  to  worship  till  the  time  of  his  death. 

It  wras  in  the  year  1800  that  he  married,  for  his 
second  wife,  his  cousin,  Mary  Ingersoll,  a  lady  of  singu- 
lar sweetness  of  disposition  and  cheerful  piety,  and  who, 
by  her  entire  sympathy  with  him  in  all  his  studies  and 


*  On  his  leaving  Salem,  a  public  dinner  was  given  him  by  his  fellow- 
citizens,  as  a  testimony  of  their  respect.  No  man  ever  left  that  place 
more  regretted. 


46 

pursuits,  lightened  and  cheered  his  labors,  and  by  re- 
lieving him  from  all  domestic  cares,  enabled  him  to  go 
on,  "with  undivided  mind  and  undistracted  attention,  in 
the  execution  of  the  great  work,  on  which  his  fame,  as 
a  man  of  science,  rests.  He  has  been  heard  to  say,  that 
he  never  should  have  accomplished  the  task,  and  pub- 
lished the  book  in  its  present  extended  form,  had  he 
not  been  stimulated  and  encouraged  by  her.  When 
the  serious  question  was  under  consideration  as  to  the 
expediency  of  his  publishing  it  at  his  own  cost,  at  the 
estimated  expense  of  ten  thousand  dollars  (which  it  ac- 
tually exceeded),  with  the  noble  spirit  of  her  sex,  she 
conjured  and  urged  him  to  go  on  and  do  it,  saying  that 
she  would  find  the  means,  and  gladly  make  any  sacrifice 
and  submit  to  any  self-denial  that  might  be  involved  in 
it.  In  grateful  acknowledgment  of  her  sympathy  and 
aid,  he  proposed,  in  the  concluding  volume,  to  dedicate 
the  work  to  her  memory — a  design  than  which  nothing 
could  be  more  beautiful  or  touching.  Let  it  still  be  ful- 
filled.* 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  say  that  this  was  a 
Translation  and  Commentary  on  the  great  work  of  the 
French  astronomer,  La  Place,  entitled  "Mtcanique 

*  This  noble-minded  and  excellent  woman,  whose  unfailing  cheerful- 
ness and  vivacity  rendered  her  admirably  suited  to  be  the  wife  of  such  a 
man,  was  the  daughter  of  Jonathan  and  Mary  Hodges  Ingersoll.  She 
was  born  December  4,  1781,  and  died  in  Boston  on  the  seventeenth  of 
April,  1834.  Her  father  is  still  living  in  Windsor,  Vt.,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty-seven  years,  and  his  only  surviving  child,  George  H.,  re- 
sides at  Charlestown,  N.  H. 


47 

/ 

Celeste"  in  which  that  illustrious  man  undertakes  to  ex- 
plain the  whole  mechanism  of  our  solar  system,  to  ac- 
count, on  mathematical  principles,  for  all  its  phenomena, 
and  to  reduce  all  the  anomalies  in  the  apparent  motions 
and  figures  of  the  planetary  bodies,  to  certain  definite 
laws.*  It  is  a  work  of  great  genius  and  immense  depth,, 
and  exceedingly  difficult  to  be  comprehended.  This 
arises  not  merely  from  the  intrinsic  difficulty  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  the  medium  of  proof  employed  being  the 
higher  branches  of  the  mathematics, — but  chiefly  from 
the  circumstance  that  the  author,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  the  subject  would  be  as  plain  and  easy  to  others  as 

*  La  Place  himself,  in  his  Preface,  states  the  object  of  his  work  as 
follows.  "  Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Newton  pub- 
lished his  discovery  of  universal  gravitation.  Mathematicians  have, 
since  that  epoch,  succeeded  in  reducing  to  this  great  law  of  nature  all 
the  known  phenomena  of  the  system  of  the  world,  and  have  thus  given 
to  the  theories  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  to  astronomical  tables,  an  un- 
expected degree  of  precision.  My  object  is  to  present  a  connected  view 
of  these  theories,  which  are  now  scattered  in  a  great  number  of  works. 
The  whole  of  the  results  of  gravitation,  upon  the  equilibrium  and  mo- 
tions of  the  fluid  and  solid  bodies,  which  compose  the  solar  system,  and 
the  similar  systems,  existing  in  the  immensity  of  space,  constitute  the 
object  of  Celestial  Mechanics,  or  the  application  of  the  principles  of  me- 
chanics to  the  motions  and  figures  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Astronomy, 
considered  in  the  most  general  manner,  is  a  great  problem  of  mechanics, 
in  which  the  elements  of  the  motions  are  the  arbitrary  constant  quan- 
tities. The  solution  of  this  problem  depends,  at  the  same  time,  upon 
the  accuracy  of  the  observations,  and  upon  the  perfection  of  the  anal- 
ysis. It  is  very  important  to  reject  every  empyrical  process,  and  to 
complete  the  analysis,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  necessary  to  derive  from 
observations  any  but  indispensable  data.  The  intention  of  this  work  is 
to  obtain,  as  much  as  may  be  in  my  power,  this  interesting  result." 


48 

to  himself,  very  often  omits  the  intermediate  steps  and 
connecting  links  in  his  demonstrations.*  He  jumps 
over  the  interval,  and  grasps  the  conclusion  as  by  intui- 
tion. Dr.  Bowditch  used  to  say, "  I  never  come  across 
one  of  La  Place's  '  Thus  it  plainly  appears?  without 
feeling  sure  that  I  have  got  hours  of  hard  study  before 
me  to  fill  up  the  chasm,  and  find  out  and  show  how  it 
plainly  appears."  It  was  in  the  year  1815,  at  Salem, 
that  he  began  this  herculean  task,  and  finished  it  in 
two  years,  in  1817.  The  Commentary  kept  pace  with 
the  Translation ;  but  whilst  the  publication  was  in  hand, 
his  alterations  and  additions  were  so  numerous  that  it 
might  almost  be  considered  a  new  draft  of  the  work. 
Let  it  not  be  said,  in  disparagement  of  the  labors  of 
Dr.  Bowditch,  that  this  was  not  an  original  work,  but 
merely  a  translation.  Suppose  that  it  had  been  so. 


*  Dr.  Bowditch  himself  says,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  first  vol- 
ume, "  The  object  of  the  author,  in  composing  this  work,  as  stated  by 
him  in  his  Preface,  was  to  reduce  all  the  known  phenomena  of  the 
system  of  the  world  to  the  law  of  gravity,  by  strict  mathematical 
principles ;  and  to  complete  the  investigations  of  the  motions  of  the 
planets,  satellites,  and  comets,  begun  by  Newton  in  his  Principia.  This 
he  has  accomplished,  in  a  manner  deserving  the  highest  praise,  for  its 
symmetry  and  completeness ;  but  from  the  abridged  manner,  in  which 
the  analytical  calculations  have  been  made,  it  has  been  found  difficult  to 
be  understood  by  many  persons,  who  have  a  strong  and  decided  taste 
for  mathematical  studies,  on  account  of  the  time  and  labor  required,  to 
insert  the  intermediate  steps  of  the  demonstrations,  necessary  to  enable 
them  easily  to  follow  the  author  in  his  reasoning.  To  remedy,  in  some 
measure,  this  defect,  has  been  the  chief  object  of  the  translator  in  the 
Notes." 


49 

What  then?  Was  it  not  still  a  benefaction  to  this 
country  and  to  Great  Britain,  thus  to  bring  it  within 
the  reach  and  compass  of  the  American  and  English 
mind  ?*  It  is  truly  said  by  an  old  writer,  "  So  well  is  he 
worthy  of  perpetual  fame  that  bringeth  a  good  work  to 
light,  as  is  he  that  first  did  make  it,  and  ought  always  to 

*  The  only  attempts  that  have  been  made  in  England  to  grapple  with 
the  great  work  of  La  Place  are,  1.  "An  Elementary  Treatise  upon  Ana- 
lytical Mechanics,  being  the  First  Book  of  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of  La 
Place ;  translated  and  elucidated  with  Explanatory  Notes,  by  the  Rev. 
John  Toplis,  B.  D.,  London.  1814."  8vo.— 2.  "  Elementary  Illustra- 
tions of  the  Celestial  Mechanics  of  La  Place,  [by  Thomas  Young,  M.  D.} 
London.  1821."  8vo. — 3.  "A  Treatise  on  Celestial  Mechanics,  by  P. 
S.  La  Place;  translated  from  the  French,  and  elucidated  with  Explana- 
tory Notes,  by  Rev.  Henry  H.  Harte,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 
Part  First,  Book  First,  1822.  Book  Second,  1827.  Dublin."  4to. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  two  out  of  the  three  translators  of  parts  of  La 
Place's  work  in  England  are  clergymen.  The  clergy  in  England,  as 
well  as  on  the  continent,  and  in  this  country,  have  ever  been  not  only 
among  the  warmest  patrons,  but  the  foremost  and  most  successful  cul- 
tivators, of  all  branches  of  science  and  letters.  Passing  over  the  names 
of  continental  scholars,  we  have,  in  science,  the  names  of  Flamsteed, 
astronomer  royal,  Barrow  and  Whiston,  both  professors  of  mathematics 
at  Cambridge,  Bp.  Sprat,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society  and  its 
first  historian,  Thomas  Birch,  the  author  of  the  more  extended  history  of 
the  same  Society,  Joseph  Priestley,  Richard  Kirwan,  Dr.  Pearson,  lately 
deceased,  and  among  the  living,  Whewell,  Buckland,  Kirby,  Sedgwick, 
Conybeare,  Lardner,  Baden  Powell,  Prof,  of  Geometry  at  Oxford,  James 
Gumming,  Prof,  of  Chemistry  at  Cambridge,  &c.  &c.  The  published 
Translations  and  Reports  of  "  The  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,"  show  that  some  of  the  most  prominent  and  active 
men  at  its  sessions  are  clergymen.  Then,  in  classical  literature,  we 
have  the  two  great  names  of  Richard  Benlley  and  Gilbert  Wakefield,  and 
in  history,  Robertson. 

In  this  country,  while  the  clergy  have  done  their  full  part  in  the  ad- 

7 


50 

be  reckoned  the  second  father  thereof."*  But  the  fact 
is,  it  is  more  than  half  an  original  commentary  and  ex- 
position, simplifying  and  elucidating  what  was  before 
complex  and  obscure,  supplying  omissions  and  defi- 
ciencies, fortifying  the  positions  with  new  proofs  and 


vancement  of  science  and  letters,  the  history  of  the  country  has  been 
almost  exclusively  written  by  them.  Witness  the  names  of  Cotton 
Mather,  Thomas  Prince,  Gordon,  Eliot,  Holmes,  Belknap,  Smith  of 
New  Jersey,  Trumbull,  Freeman,  Sparks,  George  Bancroft.  In  phi- 
losophy, the  great  name  of  Jonathan  Edwards  stands  at  the  head ;  and 
glancing  over  the  names  of  Witherspoon,  Samuel  Smith,  and  President 
Dwight,  we  have,  among  the  living,  Dr.  Miller  and  President  Wayland. 
In  mechanical  philosophy,  the  late  Dr.  Prince,  of  Salem,  had  no  equal. 
In  general  literature  and  criticism,  the  name  of  Edward  Everett  is 
in  itself  a  host;  Dr.  Channing,  as  an  essay-writer,  has  no  rival ;  and  in 
the  department  of  theology,  let  me  point  to  the  recent  contributions  of 
Norton  and  Palfrey.  The  editors  of  our  principal  Reviews,  the  North 
American,  the  New  York  Review,  the  Christian  Examiner,  have  been 
and  still  are  clergymen;  e.  g.  E.  Everett,  Sparks,  Prof.  Palfrey,  Dr. 
Hawkes,  Dr.  Walker,  F.  W.  P.  Greenwood;  and  the  best  and  most 
popular  writers  in  them,  including  the  names  just  mentioned,  are  of  the 
clerical  profession,  e.  g.  Andrews  Norton,  Orville  Dewey,  W.  B.  0.  Pea- 
body,  H.  Ware  jr.,  George  Ripley,  and  many  others,  whom  I  have 
not  space  to  specify.  It  will  be  seen  that  I  only  glance  at  this  subject; 
it  deserves  to  be  followed  up.  It  has  been  too  much  the  fashion  to 
represent  the  clergy  as  a  body  apart  by  themselves,  taking  no  interest 
in  any  thing  but  their  professional  studies,  and  doing  nothing  to  promote 
the  progress  of  general  knowledge.  Nothing  can  be  more  untrue  and 
unjust  than  this  charge.  I  believe  it  will  be  found  that  the  clergy,  as  a 
body,  in  this  country,  have  done  more  for  general  literature,  history, 
philosophy,  and  science,  than  all  other  professions  and  occupations,  put 
together.  See  2  Corinthians  xii.  11.  "  Every  man,"  says  Lord  Bacon, 
"  is  a  debtor  to  his  profession."  I  want  to  pay  my  debt. 

*  John  Bale's  Conclusion  to  John  Leland's  "  Laborious  Journey  and 
Search  for  England's  Antiquities." 


51 

giving  additional  weight  and  efficiency  to  the  old  ones ; 
and,  "above  all,  recording  the  subsequent  discoveries,  and 
bringing  down  the  science  to  the  present  time.*  I  have 
heard  it  said  that  La  Place,  to  whom  Dr.  Bowditch  sent 
a  list  of  errors,  (which  however  he  never  had  the  grace 
to  acknowledge  in  any  way),f  once  remarked,  "  I  am 
sure  that  Mr.  Bowditch  comprehends  my  work,  for  he 
has  not  only  detected  my  errors,  but  has  also  shown 
me  how  I  came  to  fall  into  them." 

The  manner  in  which  he  published  this  work  affords 
a  striking  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  independence,  which 
was  a  prominent  feature  in  his  character.  He  had 
been  frequently  solicited  and  urged  by  his  numerous 


*  It  is  highly  honorable  to  the  sex,  that  the  best,  may  I  not  say,  the 
only  Exposition  of  La  Place's  work  that  has  appeared  in  England,  is 
from  the  pen  of  a  female,  the  accomplished  MARY  SOMERVILLE,  wife  of 
Dr.  Somerville,  of  Chelsea  Hospital ;  a  lady,  who  to  profound  acqui- 
sitions in  science,  and  a  practical  skill  in  several  of  the  elegant  arts,  adds 
the  faithful  discharge  of  all  household  duties.  On  visiting  her  house  in 
1S33,  in  company  with  a  son  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  I  remember  observing 
that  the  walls  of  the  drawing-rooms  were  hung  round  with  the  beautiful 
productions  of  her  own  pencil. — The  Edinburgh  Review  said  of  her  work, 
entitled  "  The  Mechanism  of  the  Heavens,"  on  its  first  appearance,  in 
1821,  "  This  unquestionably  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  works  that 
female  intellect  ever  produced,  in  any  age  or  country ;  and,  with  respect 
to  the  present  day,  we  hazard  little  in  saying  that  Mrs.  Somerville  is  the 
only  individual  of  her  sex  in  the  world  who  could  have  written  it." 

f  This,  possibly,  may  have  been  an  inadvertence,  or  the  letter  of 
acknowledgment  may  have  miscarried  on  the  way.  It  is  certain  that 
his  widow  received  the  son  of  the  American  mathematician  with  great 
kindness  and  consideration,  when,  in  the  year  1833,  he  went  to  Paris  to 
pursue  his  medical  studies,  carrying  out  with  him  the  second  volume  of 


52 

wealthy  friends,  and  by  eminent  scientific  men,  and 
formally  requested  by  the  American  Academy  of 'Arts 
and  Sciences,  to  permit  them  to  print  it  at  their  ex- 
pense, for  the  honor  of  the  country,  and  for  the  cause 
of  science.  He  was  well  aware,  however,  that  there 
was  not  sufficient  taste  in  the  community  for  such 
studies  to  justify  an  enterprise  which  would  involve  a 
great  outlay,  and,  as  he  thought,  would  bring  him 
under  pecuniary  obligations  to  others.  I  recollect  con- 
versing with  him  once  on  this  subject,  when  he  said  to 
me,  in  his  usual  ardent  way,  "  Sir,  I  did  not  choose  to 
give  an  opportunity  to  such  a  man  (mentioning  his 
name)  to  point  up  to  his  book-case  and  say,  'I  pa- 
tronized Mr.  Bowditch  by  subscribing  for  his  expensive 
work,' — not  a  word  of  which  he  could  understand. 
No.  I  preferred  to  wait  till  I  could  afford  to  publish  it 
at  my  own  expense.  That  time  at  last  arrived ;  and  if, 
instead  of  setting  up  my  coach?  as  I  might  have  done,  I 

his  father's  work.  He  was  immediately  invited  to  a  splendid  soiree,  and 
on  entering  the  brilliant  saloon,  filled  with  the  savans  of  France,  he  was 
unexpectedly  greeted  by  seeing  on  the  centre  table, — the  only  thing  on 
it, — the  identical  volume  which  he  had  brought  over  with  him — a  deli- 
cate compliment,  which  none  but  a  graceful  French  woman  would  have 
thought  of  paying.  Madame  La  Place  subsequently  sent  to  Dr.  Bow- 
ditch  the  noble  bust  of  her  husband,  which  now  stands  on  the  secretary 
in  the  Library.  This  bust  is  ultimately  to  go  to  Harvard  College,  ac- 
cording to  the  following  provision  in  his  Will. 

"  Item.  The  bust  of  La  Place,  presented  to  me  by  his  widow,  and 
which  was  brought  to  me  from  Europe  by  my  son  Henry,  I  give  to  my 
said  son  for  life,  and  at  his  death  to  said  President  and  Fellows  of  Har- 
vard College." 


53 

see  fit  to  spend  my  money  in  this  way,  who  has  any 
right  to  complain  ?     My  children  I  know  will  not." 

The  first  volume  of  the  work  was  published  in  the 
year  1829,*  the  second  in  1832,  and  the  third  in  1834, 
each  volume  containing  about  a  thousand  quarto  pages. 


*  The  London  Quarterly  Review,  three  years  after  the  appearance  of 
Dr.  Bowditch's  first  volume,  expressed  the  following  high  opinion  of  its 
merits.  *'  The  idea  of  undertaking  a  translation  of  the  whole  '  Mecanique 
Celeste,'  accompanied  throughout  with  a  copious  running  commentary, 
is  one  which  savors,  at  first  sight,  of  the  gigantesque,  and  is  certainly 
one  which,  from  what  we  have  hitherto  had  reason  to  conceive  of  the 
popularity  and  diffusion  of  mathematical  knowledge  on  the  opposite 
shores  of  the  Atlantic,  we  should  never  have  expected  to  have  found 
originated — or,  at  least,  carried  into  execution,  in  that  quarter.  The 
first  volume  only  has  as  yet  reached  us ;  and  when  we  consider  the  great 
difficulty  of  printing  works  of  this  nature,  to  say  nothing  of  the  heavy 
and  probably  unremunerated  expense,  we  are  not  surprised  at  the  delay 
of  the  second.  Meanwhile  the  part  actually  completed  (which  contains 
the  first  two  books  of  La  Place's  work)  is,  with  few  and  slight  exceptions, 
just  what  we  could  have  wished  to  see — an  exact  and  careful  translation 
into  very  good  English — exceedingly  well  printed,  and  accompanied 
with  notes  appended  to  each  page,  which  leave  no  step  in  the  text  of 
moment  unsupplied,  and  hardly  any  material  difficulty  either  of  conception 
or  reasoning  unelucidated.  To  the  student  of  ;  Celestial  Mechanism ' 
such  a  work  must  be  invaluable,  and  we  sincerely  hope  that  the  success 
of  this  volume,  which  seems  thrown  out  to  try  the  feeling  of  the  public, 
both  American  and  British,  will  be  such  as  to  induce  the  speedy  appear- 
ance of  the  sequel.  Should  this  unfortunately  not  be  the  case,  we  shall 
deeply  lament  that  the  liberal  offer  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,  to  print  the  whole  at  their  expense,  was  not  accepted.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  it  is  impossible  to  regard  the  appearance  of  such  a  work, 
even  in  its  present  incomplete  state,  as  otherwise  than  highly  creditable 
to  American  science,  and  as  the  harbinger  of  future  achievements  in 
the  loftiest  fields  of  intellectual  prowess."  Vol.  XL  VIII.  p.  558. 


54 

The  fourth  and  last  volume  was  nearly  completed  at 
the  time  of  his  decease.  He  persevered  to  the  last  in 
his  labors  upon  it,  preparing  the  copy  and  reading  the 
proof-sheets  in  the  intervals  when  he  was  free  from 
pain.  The  last  time  I  saw  him,  a  few  days  previous  to 
his  death,  a  proof-sheet  was  lying  on  his  table,  which 
he  said  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  read  over  and  correct.* 
The  publication  of  the  book  proved,  as  he  anticipated, 
and  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  a  very  expensive  un- 
dertaking, it  being  one  of  the  largest  works  and  most 
difficult  of  execution  ever  printed  in  this  country,  and 
at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of 
typography.  A  young  friend  of  mine,t  a  member  of 
this  church,  of  singular  purity  and  worth,  who  worked 
as  a  compositor  on  one  of  the  volumes,  lost  his  life,  as 
I  believe,  by  his  unremitting  application  to  this  very 
trying  and  perplexing  piece  of  mechanical  art.  His 
widow,  who  is  now  present  and  hears  me,  will  bear 
witness  that  she  was  kindly  visited  in  her  bereavement 
by  Dr.  Bowditch,  and  generously  remembered  by  him. 


*  The  precious  original  manuscript  will  be  hereafter  preserved  in 
the  library  at  Cambridge,  according  to  his  direction  in  his  Will.  "  Item. 
Having  received  from  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College 
my  first  public  literary  honor,  and  having  been  for  many  years  intimately 
connected  with  its  administration,  I  give  to  that  institution  my  manu- 
script copy  of '  The  Translation  of  La  Place's  Mecanique  Celeste.' " 

f  John  W.  Macnair,  of  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  died  in  this  city, 
February  27,  1833,  aged  33.  His  name  is  appended  as  compositor  to 
the  second  volume.  The  three  first  volumes  of  the  work  were  printed 
by  Isaac R.  Butts;  the  fourth  by  the  Boston  Stereotype  Company. 


55 

Though  the  work,  on  its  appearance,  met  with  more 
purchasers  than  the  author  ever  expected,  still  the  cost 
was  a  heavy  draught  on  his  income,  and  an  encroach- 
ment on  his  little  property.  Yet  it  was  cheerfully  paid ; 
and  besides  that,  he  gladly  devoted  his  time,  his  talents, 
and  may  I  not  add,  his  health  and  his  life,  to  the  cause 
of  science  and  the  honor  of  his  native  land.  That  work 
is  his  monument. 

Si  MONUMENTUM  QUJERIS,  ASPICE    LIBRUM.* 

He  needs  no  other  monument ;  and  at  the  same  time  it 
is  the  most  precious  and  honorable  legacy  that  he  could 
bequeath  to  his  children.f 


*  I  have  ventured  to  alter  a  little  and  apply  to  Dr.  Bowditch,  the  well- 
known  epitaph  on  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  beneath  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  London  : — "  Si  MONUMENTUM  QUJERIS,  CIRCUMSPICE." 

t  Among  the  numerous  services  which  Dr.  Bowditch  rendered  to  the 
cause  of  good  learning  and  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge,  after  he 
came  to  Boston,  was  the  deep  interest  and  the  active  part  which  he  took  in 
the  Boston  Athenaeum.  When,  in  1826,  the  Perkins  family,  in  that  liberal 
spirit  which  has  ever  characterized  them,  gave  to  the  Athenaeum  six- 
teen thousand  dollars,  on  condition  that  an  equal  sum  should  be  raised 
from  other  sources,  Dr.  Bowditch  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  ac- 
complish the  object.  Many  of  the  best  friends  of  the  institution  thought 
the  enterprise  a  hopeless  one,  and  were  indisposed  even  to  make  an 
attempt  to  raise  the  amount.  But  Dr.  Bowditch  said,  "  It  is  a  good  thing, 
let  us  try  it ;  if  we  fail,  we  fail  in  a  good  cause."  He  called  personally 
on  many  individuals  to  solicit  subscriptions,  and  chiefly  in  consequence 
of  his  exertions,  the  additional  sum  of  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars 
was  raised. 

The  permitting  the  books  to  be  taken  out  of  the  library  was  another 
measure  proposed  and  effected  by  him.  Strenuous  opposition  was  made 


56 

In  delineating  the  character  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  it  de- 
serves to  be  mentioned,  first  of  all,  that  he  was  emi- 
nently a  self-taught  and  self-made  man.  He  was  the 
instructer  of  his  own  mind,  and  the  builder  up  of  his 
own  fame  and  fortunes.  Whatever  knowledge  he  pos- 
sessed,— and  wre  have  seen  that  it  was  very  great, — was 


to  it ;  but  he  believed  and  said  that  the  circulation  of  the  books  would 
make  the  library  ten  times  more  useful,  and  he  persevered  till  he  accom- 
plished the  measure.  It  was  always  a  favorite  object  with  Dr.  Bowditch 
to  render  books  easily  accessible  to  those  who  wanted  them,  and  could 
make  a  good  use  of  them.  He  doubtless  remembered  the  difficulties 
under  which  he  labored  in  early  life  for  want  of  books,  and  was  disposed 
to  obtain  for  others  the  advantages  which  had  been  extended  to  himself. 
He  was  Trustee  of  the  Athenseum  from  Jan.  2,  1826,  to  Dec.  4,  1833. 

Immediately  after  his  election  as  Trustee,  Dr.  Bowditch,  perceiving 
the  paucity  and  poverty  of  the  scientific  department  of  the  library,  which 
might  all  be  put  into  one  small  compartment, — "  dum  tota  domus  rheda 
componitur  una," — declared  that  "  it  was  too  bad,  and  a  disgrace  to  the 
institution  and  to  Boston."  He  accordingly  set  about  supplying  the 
deficiency,  by  collecting  subscriptions  for  this  express  purpose.  Col.  T. 
H.  Perkins,  one  of  nature's  noblemen,  whose  monument  is  "  The  Insti- 
tution for  the  Blind,"  gave  $500,  his  brother  James  the  same  amount, 
Dr.  Bowditch  himself  $250,  and  other  gentlemen  $100,  among  whom 
should  be  mentioned  the  subscribers  to  "  The  Scientific  Library."  With 
this  sum  were  purchased  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Societies  of 
London,  Dublin  and  Edinburgh,  of  the  French  Academies  and  Institute, 
of  the  Academies  of  Berlin,  Gb'ttingen,  St.  Petersburg,  Turin,  Lisbon, 
Madrid,  Stockholm,  and  Copenhagen ;  forming,  as  Dr.  Bowditch  once 
told  the  librarian,  "  the  most  extensive  and  complete  collection  of  philo- 
sophical and  scientific  works  on  this  continent." 

Dr.  Bowditch  took  a  deep  and  active  interest  in  the  "  Boston  Mechan- 
ics' Institution,"  which  was  established  in  1826,  and  of  which  he  was 
elected  the  first  President,  January  12,  1827.  In  the  winter  of  1828, 


*   57 

of  his  own  acquiring,  the  fruit  of  his  solitary  studies, 
with  but  little,  if  any,  assistance  from  abroad.  Whatever 
eminence  he  reached,  in  science  or  in  life,  was  the  pro- 
duct of  his  untiring  application  and  unremitting  toil. 
From  his  youth  up,  he  was  a  pattern  of  industry,  enter- 
prise and  perseverance,  suffering  no  difficulties  to  dis- 
courage, no  disappointments  to  dishearten  him. 


more  than  a  thousand  dollars  were  subscribed  for  the  purchase  of  appar- 
atus, chiefly  through  his  influence  with  his  friends,  and  he  headed  the 
list  with  the  sum  of  one  hundred  dollars.  It  is  an  important  fact,  that 
the  mode  of  communicating  instruction  by  popular  lectures,  now 
universal,  was  first  introduced  in  this  community  by  the  Boston  Me- 
chanics' Institution,  and  chiefly  by  the  exertions  of  the  mechanics  of  this 
city.  Dr.  Bowditch  resigned  the  Presidency  April  27,  1829,  and  on  May 
14,  he  was  elected  first  honorary  member  of  the  institution. 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  also  an  honorary  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Charitable  Mechanic  Association,  having  been  elected  on  the  5th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1828.  On  the  3d  of  April  last,  a  Eulogy  on  their  departed  associate 
was  pronounced  before  that  body  by  the  author  of  this  Discourse,  on  which 
day  the  flags  of  all  the  shipping  in  the  port  were  hauled  to  half-mast  by 
direction  of  the  Boston  Marine  Society,  of  which  he  was  likewise  a 
regular  member,  having  been  admitted  on  the  2d  of  March,  1830.  His 
sense  of  the  honor  thus  conferred  on  him  by  these  elections,  and  his 
affectionate  regard  for  these  Societies,  will  be  best  seen  by  the  following 
extract  from  his  Will : — 

"And,  in  respect  to  Boston,  the  home  of  my  adoption,  where,  as  a 
stranger,  I  met  with  welcome,  and  where  I  have  ever  continued  to  re- 
ceive constantly  increasing  proofs  of  kindness  and  regard,  I  should  have 
been  most  happy  to  have  made  a  similar  acknowledgment  of  my  grati- 
tude by  legacies  to  those  literary  and  charitable  institutions  for  which 
that  city  has  always  been  so  preeminently  distinguished.  And,  in  par- 
ticular, it  would  have  given  me  pleasure  to  have  noticed  the  Boston 
Marine  Society,  of  which  I  am  a  member,  and  the  Boston  Charitable 

8 


58 

Within  a  few  years  a  very  interesting  work  has  been 
published  in  England,  under  the  patronage  of  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,  entitled 
"  The  Pursuit  of  Knowledge  under  Difficulties."  Dr. 
Bowditch  deserves  a  place  in  that  work,  if  any  man 
does,  and  had  he  died  before  its  appearance,  he  would 
unquestionably,  like  our  countryman  Franklin,*  have 
occupied  a  prominent  chapter.  We  sometimes  hear 
persons  say,  how  much  they  would  do  if  they  only 
had  the  means  and  the  opportunities.  But  almost 
any  body  can  work  with  means  and  opportunities.  It 
is  the  privilege  and  characteristic  of  genius  to  work 
without  means,  to  be  great  in  spite  of  them,  to  accom- 
plish its  object  in  the  face  of  obstacles  and  difficulties. 


Mechanic  Association,  which  has  placed  my  name  on  its  small  and 
select  list  of  honorary  members ;  since  these  institutions  are  of  a  similar 
character  to  the  Marine  Societies  in  Salem,  and  have,  for  one  of  their 
important  objects,  that  of  affording  valuable  aid  to  the  destitute  families 
of  deceased  members.  But  the  pecuniary  circumstances  of  my  estate  do 
not  permit  it." 

*  It  would  be  interesting  and  instructive  to  draw  a  parallel  and  con- 
trast between  the  lives,  characters  and  scientific  attainments  of  Franklin 
and  Bowditch,  unquestionably  the  two  greatest  proficients  in  science 
that  America  has  produced.  Both  rose  from  obscure  situations  in 
humble  life,  and  from  the  straits  of  poverty.  Both  left  school  at  the  age 
of  ten  years,  to  assist  their  fathers  in  their  shops.  Both  had  an  early  and 
passionate  love  of  reading,  and  the  vigils  of  both  often  "  prevented  the 
morning."  Both  had  the  same  habits  of  industry,  perseverance  and 
temperance.  The  contrast  between  their  characters  would  be  still  more 
striking  than  the  resemblance.  But  I  cannot  go  on  now.  I  may  resume 
this  topic  hereafter. 


59 

It  was  my  good  fortune,  some  years  since,  in  one  of 
those  familiar  interviews  with  him  in  his  own  house 
with  which  I  was  favored, — and  which  those  who  have 
once  enjoyed  them  will  never  forget, — to  hear  him  nar- 
rate, in  detail,  a  history  of  his  early  life.  From  that 
day  to  this  I  have  never  ceased  to  regret  that,  on  my 
return  home,  I  did  not  instantly  put  it  down  upon  paper, 
for  the  refreshment  of  my  own  memory,  and  for  the 
benefit  of  others.  At  this  distance  of  time,  I  can  re- 
collect but  a  few,  the  most  striking,  particulars ;  the  rest 
have  faded  away  and  are  lost.  I  remember,  however, 
very  distinctly,  his  relating  the  circumstance  which  led 
him  to  take  an  interest  in  the  higher  branches  of 
mathematical  science.  After  mentioning  his  going  to 
sea  at  an  early  age,  he  told  me  that,  in  the  intervals  of 
his  voyages,  he  endeavored,  by  himself,  to  pick  up  a  little 
knowledge  of  navigation,  and,  as  preparatory  to  that,  to 
acquire  the  elements  of  geometry.  It  so  happened, 
that  an  elder  brother  of  his,  who  likewise  followed  the 
sea,  was  then  attending  an  evening  school  for  the  same 
purpose.  On  returning  home  one  evening,  he  informed 
him  that  the  master  had  got  a  new  way  of  doing  sums 
and  working  questions ;  for,  instead  of  the  numerical 
figures  commonly  used  in  arithmetic,  he  employed  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet.  This  novelty  excited  the  curi- 
osity of  the  youthful  navigator,  and  he  questioned  his 
brother  very  closely  about  the  matter ;  who,  however, 
did  not  seem  to  understand  much  about  the  process, 
and  could  not  tell  how  the  thing  was  done.  But  the 


60 

master,  he  said,  had  a  book,  which  told  all  about  it. 
This  served  to  inflame  his  curiosity ;  and  he  asked  his 
brother  whether  he  could  not  borrow  the  book  of  the 
master  and  bring  it  home,  so  that  he  might  get  a  sight 
at  it.  (It  should  be  remembered  that,  at  this  time,  math- 
ematical books  of  all  sorts  were  scarce  in  this  country. 
In  the  present  multitude  of  elementary  works  on  the 
subject,  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  the  dearth  that  then 
prevailed).  The  book  was  obtained.  It  was  the  first 
glance  that  he  had  ever  had  at  algebra.  "And  that 
night,"  said  he,  "  I  did  not  close  my  eyes."  He  read 
it,  and  read  it  again,  and  mastered  its  contents,  and 
copied  it  out  from  beginning  to  end.  Subsequently  he 
got  hold  of  a  volume  of  the  Philosophical  Transactions 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  which  he  treated 
pretty  much  in  the  same  summary  way,  making  a  very 
full  and  minute  abstract  of  all  the  mathematical  papers 
contained  in  it;  and  this  course  he  pursued  with  the 
whole  of  that  voluminous  work.  He  was  too  poor  to 
purchase  books,  and  this  was  the  only  mode  of  getting 
at  their  results,  and  having  them  constantly  at  hand  for 
consultation.  These  manuscripts,  written  in  his  small, 
neat  hand,  and  filling  several  folio  volumes,  are  now  in 
his  library,  and,  in  my  opinion,  are  the  most  curious  and 
precious  part  of  that  large  and  valuable  collection. 

I  have  more  than  once  heard  him  speak  in  the  most 
grateful  manner, — and  he  repeated  it  the  last  time 
that  I  saw  him, — of  the  kindness  of  those  friends 
in  Salem  who  aided  him  in  his  early  studies  by  the  loan 


61 

of  their  books.  He  named  particularly  the  late  eminent 
Dr.  Prince,*  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  who  gave 
him  free  access  to  his  library ;  and  he  likewise  mentioned 
a  society  of  gentlemen  who  had  a  private  collection  of 
their  own.  The  manner  in  which  these  latter  books 
came  into  the  country,  is  so  remarkable,  that  I  am 
happy  to  be  able  to  relate  it  in  Dr.  Bowditch's  own 
words,  as  contained  in  his  last  Will.  The  extract  is  as 
follows : — 

"  Item.  It  is  well  known,  that  the  valuable  scientific 
library  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Richard  Kirwan  was, 
during  the  revolutionary  war,  captured  in  the  British 
Channel,  on  its  way  to  Ireland,  by  a  Beverly  privateer ; 
and  that,  by  the  liberal  and  enlightened  views  of  the 
owners  of  the  vessel,  the  library  thus  captured  was  sold 

*  It  is  gratifying  to  find  the  clergy,  the  scientific  Dr.  Prince,  and  the 
learned  Dr.  Bentley,  the  earliest  encouragers  of  the  precocious  powers  of 
the  American  mathematician.  It  has  always  been  so.  The  Christian 
clergy  have,  from  the  beginning  down  to  this  day,  not  only  been  them- 
selves the  most  learned  men  of  their  times,  but  have  always  been  the  fos- 
terers of  early  talent,  and  the  patrons  of  unfriended  genius.  They  are  the 
natural,  the  appropriate  guardians  of  our  seminaries  of  learning. 

"Why  is  it  that  the  clergy  have,  of  late  years,  been  excluded  from 
their  places  in  the  Corporation  of  Harvard  College  ?  But  a  short  time 
since,  from  1818  to  1828,  they  had  three  members  there  out  of  seven. 
They  now  have  but  one.  Has  it  been  proved  that  they  are  incompetent, 
in  any  respect,  to  act  as  its  guardians,  or  that  they  can  exert  a  less  influ- 
ence in  favor  of  that  institution  with  the  community  ?  The  Corporation 
now  consists  of  four  members  of  the  legal  profession,  two  merchants, 
and  one  clergyman.  Is  this  distribution  equal?  Is  it  right?  Is  it  ex- 
pedient ? 


62 

at  a  very  low  rate;  and  in  this  manner  was  laid  the 
foundation  upon  which  have  since  been  successively 
established  The  Philosophical  Library,  so  called,  and  the 
present  Salem  Athenreum.  Thus,  in  early  life,  I  found 
near  me  a  better  collection  of  philosophical  and  scientific 
•  works  than  could  be  found  in  any  other  part  of  the 
United  States  nearer  than  Philadelphia.  And  by  the 
kindness  of  its  proprietors  I  was  permitted  freely  to 
take  books  from  that  library  and  to  consult  and  study 
them  at  pleasure.  This  inestimable  advantage  has 
made  me  deeply  a  debtor  to  the  Salem  Athenaeum ; 
and  I  do  therefore  give  to  that  Institution  the  sum  of 
one  thousand  dollars,  the  income  thereof  to  be  for  ever 
applied  to  the  promotion  of  its  objects  and  the  exten- 
sion of  its  usefulness." 

I  have  two  remarks  to  make  on  this  singularly 
interesting  extract.  In  the  first  place,  it  seems  to  me 
there  was  something  like  a  special  providence  in  the 
capture  of  that  library,  consisting  of  such  a  peculiar 
class  of  books,  by  a  Beverly  vessel,  and  its  being 
brought  into  the  port  of  Salem  rather  than  any  other 
port  in  the  United  States.  Here  was  apparent  design, 
the  fitting  of  means  to  ends.  The  books  came  exactly 
to  the  place  where  they  were  wanted;  to  the  only 
place,  probably,  in  the  country  where  they  were  wanted. 
They  came,  too,  at  the  right  time,  just  in  season  to  be 
used  by  the  person  who  could  make  the  best  possible 
use  of  them,  and  to  whom  they  were,  above  all  com- 
putation, valuable  and  necessary.  If  this  be  not  an  act 
of  Providence,  I  hardly  know  what  is. 


63 

The  good  Dr.  Kirwan*  mourned,  no  doubt,  over  the 
loss  of  his  books,  and  not  least  of  all  that  they  had 
become  so  utterly  misplaced  and  useless.  He  probably 
thought  that  the  vessel  which  contained  them  might  as 
well  have  been  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the 
leaves  of  his  philosophical  works  employed  to  adorn  the 
heads  and  persons  of  the  Caffres  and  Hottentots,  a  use 
to  which  we  are  told  "The  Practical  Navigator"  was 
once  put  by  the  inhabitants  of  one  of  the  South  Sea 
islands.!  But  had  the  learned  philosopher  known  that 
his  lost  library  had  supplied  the  intellectual  food  for  the 
growth  of  one  of  the  greatest  scientific  men  of  his  age, 
he  might,  perhaps,  have  become  reconciled  to  his  loss. 

My  other  remark  is,  that  this  item  in  his  Will  is  an 
indication  of  a  very  prominent  feature  in  his  character, 
namely,  his  grateful  and  generous  spirit.  Dr.  Bowditch 
never  forgot  a  favor ;  length  of  time  did  not  obliterate  it 
from  his  memory.  The  kindness  shown  him  when  a 

*  The  reverend  Richard  Kir  wan  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  and  was 
distinguished  for  his  attainments  in  mineralogy  and  chemistry.  His 
principal  work  was  his  Elements  of  Mineralogy,  published  in  1784. 
He  died  in  1812. 

f  "  It  happened  that  among  the  few  articles  saved  from  the  ship,  [the 
whale-ship  Mentor,  of  New  Bedford]  was  a  copy  of  *  Bowditch's  Navi- 
gator ; '  an  article  of  as  little  use  as  we  can  conceive  any  one  thing  to 
have  been  at  that  place.  But  the  ingenuity  of  the  females,  who  also 
have  their  passion  for  ornaments,  tore  out  the  leaves  of  the  book,  and 
making  them  into  little  rolls  of  the  size  of  one's  finger,  wore  them  in 
their  ears,  instead  of  the  tufts  of  grass  which  they  usually  employed  to 
give  additional  attractions  to  their  native  charms."  American  Quarterly 
Review  of  Holder? s  Narrative,  Vol.  XX.  p.  25. 


64 

poor  boy  he  remembers  and  repays  by  a  liberal  legacy. 
The  Salem  Marine  Society,  a  mutual  charitable  institu- 
tion, which  had  aided  his  father  in  his  straits  by  the 
small  annual  stipend  of  fifteen  dollars,  he  repays,  and 
wipes  off  the  obligation,  though  not  his  sense  of  the 
benefit,  by  a  similar  bequest  of  a  thousand  dollars.* 
And  the  East  India  Marine  Society,  whose  peculiar  and 
splendid  collection  of  curiosities  is  so  well  known, 
receives  a  legacy  of  the  same  amount.f  And  let  it  be 

*  Dr.  Bowditch  remembered,  too,  the  load  of  wood  which  annually, 
when  the  wintry  weather  came  on,  was  dropped,  without  a  word  being 
spoken,  at  his  sister's  door.  He  never  doubted  that  it  came  from  the 
Salem  Marine  Society.  Accordingly,  he  says  in  his  Will, — 

"  Item.  Whereas  several  of  my  relatives  have  heretofore  been  mem- 
bers of  that  excellent  institution,  The  Marine  Society,  at  Salem,  some 
of  whom  have  received  the  benefit  of  its  charity  fund,  under  circumstan- 
ces entitling  it  to  my  grateful  remembrance,  I  do  now  give  to  that. in- 
stitution the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  the  income  thereof  to  be  for 
ever  applied  in  aid  of  its  charitable  objects  and  purposes." 

t  Dr.  Bowditch  was  elected  President  of  the  East  India  Marine  So- 
ciety in  1820,  arid  held  that  office  until  he  left  Salem,  three  years  after- 
wards. He  entered  upon  his  duties  with  his  usual  zeal  and  energy,  and 
it  was  by  his  indefatigable  exertions  that  the  Society,  with  its  splendid 
Museum,  was  renovated  and  restored.  It  had  been  suffered,  in  the  course 
of  time,  by  the  death  and  removal  of  the  members,  to  fall  into  decay. 
But  Dr.  Bowditch  revived  it,  by  going  round  personally  and  calling  upon 
all  the  young  men  that  were  eligible,  and  persuading  them  to  join  it.  In 
this  way,  in  the  course  of  two  years,  thirty  cr  forty  active  and  efficient 
members  were  added.  It  was  under  his  Presidency,  too,  and  by  his 
encouragement,  that  the  valuable  catalogue  of  the  Museum  was  made  by 
Dr.  Bass,  now  Librarian  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  He  remembers  that 
Society  in  his  Will  as  follows : — 

"  Item.  Whereas  the  Salem  East  India  Marine  Society,  of  which  I 
was  formerly  President,  and  in  which  I  have  always  felt  a  deep  interest, 


65 

remembered  that  these  were  not  the  donations  of  a  rich 
man.  He  was  far  from  being  one.  These  three  lega- 
cies constituted  one  tenth  part  of  his  whole  personal 
property.  Others  sometimes  give  to  such  institutions 
from  their  abundance — he  from  his  comparative  penury. 
Let  the  deed  be  an  example  and  an  incitement  to 
our  wealthy  men ! 

Had  his  means  permitted,  he  would  gladly  have 
remembered,  in  the  same  way,  institutions  of  a  similar 
character  in  this  place.  I  know  that  his  heart  over- 
flowed with  affection  and  gratitude  for  the  kindness 
which  he  had  received  in  this  city  of  his  adoption.  He 
told  me,  in  his  last  illness,  that  he  had  been  very  kindly 
treated  here—far  above  his  deserts.  "My  services," 
he  added,  "have  been  very  amply  remunerated;"  and 
I  know  that  the  motive  which  induced  him  to  select  the 
objects  of  his  bounty  in  his  native  place  rather  than-  in 
this  town,  was  the  well-known  fact  that  his  legacies 
would  go  farther  and  do  much  more  good  there  than 
here.  He  remembered,  too,  that  there  were  fewer 
persons  there  than  here  who  could  afford  to  make 
bequests  of  this  sort ;  and  he  likewise  felt  well  assured 


as  an  institution  highly  creditable  to  the  Commonwealth,  possessing  a 
museum  of  a  very  rare  and  peculiar  character,  collected  from  distant 
countries,  and  affording  a  proof  alike  of  the  enterprise,  taste,  and  liber- 
ality of  such  of  the  citizens  of  Salem  as  have  followed  a  sea-faring  life, 
I  do  now  give  to  that  institution  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  the 
income  thereof  to  be  for  ever  applied  to  the  promotion  of  the  objects  for 
which  it  was  established." 


66 

that  our  rich  men  were  as  willing  as  they  were  able  to 
take  care  of  our  literary  and  charitable  institutions. 

Dr.  Bowditch  combined,  in  a  very  remarkable  de- 
gree, qualities  and  habits  of  mind  which  are  usually 
considered  incompatible  and  hostile.  He  was  a  con- 
templative, recluse  student,  and,  at  the  same  time,  an 
active,  public  man.  He  Jived  habitually  among  the  stars, 
and  yet,  I  doubt  not,  he  seemed  to  many  never  to  raise 
his  eyes  from  the  earth.  He  was  a  profound  philos- 
opher, and,  at  the  same  time,  a  shrewd,  practical  man, 
and  one  of  the  most  skilful  of  financiers.  Judging  from 
his  published  works,  you  would  suppose  that  he  could 
have  no  taste  nor  time  for  business  or  the  world ;  and 
judging  from  the  large  concerns  which  he  managed, 
and  the  vast  funds  of  which  he  had  the  supervision, — 
involving  the  most  complex  calculations  and  the  most 
minute  details, — you  would  say  that  he  could  have  no 
taste  nor  time  for  study.  His  example  is  a  conclusive 
proof  and  striking  illustration  of  the  fact,  that  there  is 
no  inherent,  essential,  necessary  incompatibility  between 
speculation  and  practice — that  there  need  be  no  divorce 
between  philosophy  and  business.  The  man  most 
deeply  engaged  in  affairs  need  not  be  cut  off  from  the 
higher  pursuits  of  intellectual  culture;  and  the  scholar 
need  not  be  incapacitated  by  his  studies  from  under- 
standing and  engaging  in  the  practical  details  of  common 
life.  In  fact,  they  should  be  blended  in  order  to  make 
up  the  full,  complete  man.  Contemplation  should  be 
always  united  with  action.  This  was  the  doctrine  and 


67 


the  practice  of  the  great  father  of  inductive  philosophy, 
as  well  as  of  this  his  illustrious  pupil.  "That,"  says 
Lord  Bacon,  "  will  indeed  dignify  and  exalt  knowledge, 
if  contemplation  and  action  may  be  more  nearly  and 
strongly  conjoined  and  united  together  than  they  have 
been,— a  conjunction  like  unto  that  of  the  two  highest 
planets,  Saturn,  the  planet  of  rest  and  contemplation, 
and  Jupiter,  the  planet  of  civil  society  and  action." 
And  speaking  of  himself  in  another  place,  he  says,  "We 
judge  also  that  mankind  may  conceive  some  hopes 
from  our  example ;  which  we  offer  not  by  way  of  osten- 
tation, but  because  it  may  be  useful.  If  any  one  there- 
fore should  despair,  let  him  consider  a  man  as  much 
employed  in  civil  affairs  as  any  other  of  his  age, — a  man 
of  no  great  share  of  health,  who  must  therefore  have 
lost  much  time, — and  yet,  in  this  undertaking,  he  is  the 
first  that  leads  the  way,  unassisted  by  any  mortal,  and 
steadfastly  entering  the  true  path,  that  was  absolutely 
untrod  before,  and  submitting  his  mind  to  things,  may 
somewhat  have  advanced  the  design." 

In  the  management  of  all  his  affairs  and  transactions 
Dr.  Bowditch  was  a  man  of  great  order  and  system, 
and  he  required  it  of  all  with  whom  he  had  to  do,  or 
over  whom  he  exercised  any  control.  He  considered 
that  there  was  a  sort  of  moral  virtue  in  this,  and  he 
could  not  tolerate  any  thing  like  negligence  or  irregular- 
ity. He  doubtless  had  himself  acquired  this  habit  from 
the  nature  of  his  favorite  study,  which  demands  the  un- 
divided attention  of  the  mind,  and  is  peculiarly  suited 


68 


to  form  habits  of  exactness  and  precision.  He  felt,  too, 
that  it  was  by  a  strict  and  undeviating  adherence  to 
order  and  system,  that  he  had  been  enabled  to  accom- 
plish so  much  in  life,  to  unite  the  scholar  with  the  finan- 
cier, the  speculative  with  the  practical  man.  It  may 
have  been  thought  by  some,  that  he  carried  this  love  of 
order  to  an  extreme,  and  sometimes  visited  too  harshly 
the  deviations  from  the  straight  line  of  his  directions. 
But  he  felt  assured  that  it  was  the  way  to  effect  the 
most  work  and  do  the  greatest  good ;  he  knew  that  the 
habit  could  be  easily  formed  in  a  short  time,  and  that  it 
would  then  approve  and  recommend  itself;  and  therefore 
he  would  admit  of  no  apology  for  infractions  of  his 
rules. 

In  the  common  sense  of  the  word,  Dr.  Bowditch 
would  not  be  called  a  public  man,  although  I  have  ven- 
tured to  call  him  so ;  for  though  he  twice  held  a  seat  in 
the  Executive  Council  of  this  State,  under  the  adminis- 
trations of  Governors  Strong  and  Brooks,*  yet  he  had 
no  taste  for  public  life,  no  ambition  for  political  honors. 
He  could  not  be  drawn  from  "  the  still  air  of  delightful 
studies  "  to  mingle  in  the  turmoil  and  strife  of  politics. 
And  yet  he  was  a  true-hearted  and  sound  patriot, 
and  not  a  whit  the  less  so  for  not  being  a  noisy  one. 
He  loved  his  country,  and  prized  her  peculiar  institu- 


*  He  was  a  counsellor  in  1815  and  1816,  the  last  of  Governor  Strong's 
and  the  first  of  Governor  Brooks's  administration. 


69 

tions.  He  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  and  honor 
of  his  native  State,  and  would  do  any  thing  to  maintain 
the  supremacy  of  the  laws,  and  preserve  the  peace  and 
order  of  the  community. — He  had  a  remarkably  sound 
and  sober  mind,  good  sense  being  one  of  its  most 
prominent  qualities.  Accordingly,  he  could  have  no 
sympathy  with  those  ardent  and  benevolent  reformers 
who  would  jumble  society  into  its  original  elements  and 
bring  back  ancient  chaos  again,  in  order  to  get  a  chance 
to  try  their  hand  at  making  the  very  best  possible  com- 
monwealth out  of  the  fragments.*  No.  He  valued  the 
lessons  of  experience,  and  prized  the  gathered  wisdom 
of  past  ages.  He  had  faith  in  other  men's  intelligence, 
as  well  as  his  own,  and  trusted  in  the  light  that  had 
been  reflected  from  a  thousand  brilliant  minds  who  had 
pored  and  pondered  over  the  great  questions  of  gov- 
ernment and  civil  polity,  and  given  us  their  results  in 
laws  and  institutions. 

Dr.  Bowditch  thought,  with  Governor  Winthrop,  in 
his^noble  apology  for  himself,  that "  there  is  a  great  mis- 


*  Sir  Walter  Scott  says,  in  a  letter  to  his  son,  then  on  the  continent, 
"  It  is  possible  that  you  may  fall  into  company  with  some  of  those  tites 
ichauffies,  who  are  now  so  common  in  Germany — men  who  would  pull 
down  the  whole  political  system  in  order  to  build  it  on  a  better  model ; 
a  proposal  about  as  wild  as  that  of  a  man  who  should  propose  to  change 
the  bridle  of  a  furious  horse,  and  commence  his  labors  by  slipping  the 
headstall  in  the  midst  of  a  heath.  Prudence,  as  well  as  principle,  will 
induce  you  to  avoid  this  class  of  politicians,  who,  I  know,  are  always  on 
the  alert  to  kidnap  young  men."  Lockharl's  Life  of  Scott,  Vol.  V.  Ch.  7. 


70 

take  in  the  country  about  liberty.  There  is  a  two-fold 
liberty  ;  natural,  and  civil  or  federal.  The  first  is  com- 
mon to  man  with  beasts  and  other  creatures.  By  this, 
man,  as  he  stands  in  relation  to  man  simply,  hath  liberty 
to  do  what  he  lists ;  it  is  a  liberty  to  evil  as  well  as  to 
good.  This  liberty  is  incompatible  and  inconsistent 
with  authority,  and  cannot  endure  the  least  restraint  of 
the  most  just  authority.  The  exercise  and  maintaining 
of  this  liberty  makes  men  grow  more  evil,  and,  in  time, 
to  be \worse  than  brute  beasts:  ' omnes  sumus  licentia 
deteriores.'  This  is  that  great  enemy  of  truth  and 
peace,  that  wild  beast,  which  all  the  ordinances  of  God 
are  bent  against,  to  restrain  and  subdue  it.  The  other 
kind  I  call  civil,  or  federal;  it  may  also  be  termed 
moral,  in  reference  to  the  covenant  between  God  and 
man,  in  the  moral  law,  and  the  politic  covenants  and 
constitutions,  amongst  men  themselves.  This  liberty  is 
the  proper  end  and  object  of  authority,  and  cannot 
subsist  without  it ;  and  it  is  a  liberty  to  that  which  is 
good,  just,  and  honest.  This  liberty  you  are  to  stand 
for,  with  the  hazard  not  only  of  your  goods,  but  of  your 
lives,  if  need  be.  Whatsoever  crosses  this  is  not  au- 
thority, but  a  distemper  thereof.  This  liberty  is  main- 
tained and  exercised  in  a  way  of  subjection  to  au- 
thority." * 

The  lawless  and  flagrant  assaults  upon  property  and 
life  which  have  occurred  in  this  country  within  a  few 

*  Winthrop's  History  of  New  England,  II.  229. 


71 

years  past,  casting  upon  its  fair  name  a  stain  of  dis- 
honor, grieved  him  to  the  heart,  and  stirred  his  spirit 
within  him.  Conversing  with  him  about  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  wanton  and  unprovoked  of  these  out- 
rages,— I  mean  the  conflagration  of  a  religious  house  in 
this  vicinity,  inhabited  solely  by  women  and  children, 
by  a  ferocious  mob  at  midnight, — he  told  me  that  had 
he  been  summoned,  or  had  an  opportunity,  he  would 
readily  have  shouldered  his  musket,  and  marched  to 
the  spot,  and  stood  in  defence  of  that  edifice  to  the  last 
drop  of  his  blood.  There  was  nothing,  indeed,  that 
stirred  his  indignation  like  oppression.* 

Immediately  after  this  outrage,  he  called  on  the 
Catholic  bishop  in  this  city,  and  put  into  his  hands  a 
sum  of  money  to  buy  clothes  for  the  women  and  child- 
ren who  had  lost  every  thing  in  the  flames.  It  is  an 
agreeable  circumstance,  well  worth  recording,  that  as 
soon  as  the  bishop  heard  of  Dr.  Bowditch's  illness,  he 
sent  and  informed  the  family,  that,  to  prevent  his  being 
disturbed,  the  bell  of  the  cathedral,  which  is  in  the 
vicinity  of  his  house,  should  not  be  rung  during  his 
illness,  although  it  was  the  season  of  Lent,  and  religious 

.  *  "  The  Ursuline  Convent,"  on  Mount  Benedict,  in  Charlestown,  about 
two  miles  from  Boston,  was  burnt  on  the  night  of  the  llth  of  August, 
1834.  The  prosecuting  officer  of  the  Commonwealth,  indeed,  did  his 
duty,  in  attempting  to  procure  a  conviction  of  the  offenders ;  but  the 
only  atonement  that  was  made  for  this  gross  outrage  upon  justice  and 
humanity,  was  the  sacrifice  of  a  scape-offering  in  the  person  of  a  boy,  who, 
after  a  short  imprisonment,  was  discharged  as  too  poor  a  victim. 


72 

services  were  going  on  almost  every  day.  It  is  pleasant 
to  see  kindness  thus  reciprocated  between  divergent 
sects,  and  the  middle  wall  of  separation  broken  down 
by  the  humane  and  grateful  feelings  of  a  common 
nature. 

The  blackened  walls  of  that  edifice  still  remain,  a 
standing  monument  to  the  shame  of  this  Commonwealth  ; 
which,  after  receiving  from  its  proprietors  an  annual  tax 
for  its  protection,  has,  to  this  day,  refused  to  repair  the 
injury  and  compensate  the  wrong.  Let  the  legislators 
of  the  State  look  to  it.  It  is  not  yet  too  late  to  make 
reparation.  Till  it  is  done,  the  pulpit  will  not  cease 
to  lift  up  its  voice  against  that  infamous  assault  upon  re- 
ligious liberty. 

Why  is  it,  my  hearers,  that  all  the  youthful  talent  of 
this  country  is  rushing  madly  into  political  life  ?  To 
how  many  of  these  aspirants  may  we  apply,  with  literal 
truth,  the  remark  of  Lord  Bacon,  in  reference  to  him- 
self, that  "  they  were  born  and  intended  for  literature 
rather  than  any  thing  else,  and,  by  a  sort  of  fatality, 
have  been  drawn,  contrary  to  the  bent  of  their  own 
genius,  into  the  walks  of  public  life."  *  Is  it  not  a  great 
mistake,  on  their  part,  to  suppose  that  politics  is  the 
only  or  the  principal  avenue  to  enduring  fame?  Is  the 
science  of  government  the  only  one  worth  studying,  or 


*  Ad  literas  potius  quam  ad  aliud  quicquam  natus,  et  ad  res  gerendas, 
nescio  quo  fa  to,  contra  genium  suum  abreptus. — De  Aug.  Sci.  Lib.  8, 
Cap.  3. 


73 

are  civil  honors  the  only  ones  worth  aspiring  to?  It 
seems  to  me  that  the  young  men  of  competent  abilities 
among  us,  who  aim  at  distinction,  those  certainly  who 
have  leisure  and  property,  might  quite  as  securely  seek 
it  in  the  retired  and  quiet  walks  of  science  and  litera- 
ture, as  in  the  bustling  and  dusty  paths  of  political  life. 
Are  the  names  of  Newton  and  Milton  less  eminent 
than  those  of  Chatham  and  Fox?  Do  they  not  stir  the 
spirit  as  soon  ?  ay,  even  as  soon  as  those  of  Marlbo- 
rough  and  Wellington  ?  Are  Cuvier  and  La  Place  names 
less  likely  to  live  than  those  of  the  statesmen  and  mar- 
shals of  France  ?  Which  are  the  two  greatest  names 
in  our  own  annals,  the  best  known  and  the  most  hon- 
ored the  world  over  ?  First,  Washington  ;  then  Frank- 
lin ;  and  the  latter  chiefly  as  a  philosopher,  from  his 
attainments  and  discoveries  in  science. 

The  example  and  success  of  Dr.  Bowditch  are  full 
of  incitement  and  encouragement  to  our  young  men  in 
this  particular,  and  should  especially  stimulate  those 
who  have  leisure  and  fortune  to  do  something  to  enable 
our  country  to  take  a  respectable  place  in  science  and 
letters  among  the  other  nations  of  the  earth  ;  so  that  the 
stigma  shall  not  adhere  to  us  of  being  a  race  of  unlet- 
tered republicans.  Let  them  look,  too,  at  more  than 
one  recent  and  successful  attempt  among  us  in  the 
department  of  history.*  How  much  may  they  not 


*  Mr.  Prescott's  "  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  Catholic,  of 
Spain,"  already  alluded  to,  and  Mr.  George  Bancroft's  "  History  of  the 

10 


74 

accomplish  1  And  into  what  pleasant  fields  will  they 
not  be  led  ?  Into  the  various  departments  of  natural 
history,  the  different  walks  of  exact  science,  the  rich  and 
instructive  annals  of  our  own  country,  and  the  delightful 
province  of  general  literature  and  philosophy.  Let  them 
labor  in  this  field,  which  will  reward  all  their  efforts, 
instead  of  delving  in  a  stony  and  sterile  soil.* 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  I  am  wandering  from  my  ap- 
propriate province  in  these  remarks.     I  do  not  thus 


United  States."  These  are  very  important  and  honorable  contributions 
to  the  growing  literature  of  our  country;  and  we  rejoice  that  we  can 
claim  them  as  the  works  of  Massachusetts  men  and  sons  of  our  venera- 
ble University.  Dr.  Bowditch  had  read  them  both  through,  and  admired 
them  both,  and  spoke  with  great  delight  of  the  chapter  on  the  Quakers,  in 
the  last-mentioned  work.  But  does  not  Mr.  Bancroft,  in  this  chapter, 
run  a  little  into  exaggeration  ?  He  is  so  full  of  enthusiasm  on  the  subject, 
that  he  seems  to  adopt  the  views  and  feelings  he  describes,  and,  for  the 
nonce,  to  be  a  very  Quaker  himself.  This  enthusiasm  in  behalf  of  an 
injured  sect  is  generous  and  delightful.  Yet  there  are  two  sides  to  that 
Quaker  question  in  America ;  and  a  young  friend  of  mine,  fully  compe- 
tent for  the  task  from  the  perseverance  and  accuracy  of  his  investigations, 
is  about  to  give  us  the  other  side.  The  ancient  Quakers,  with  all  their 
meekness,  were  the  most  foul-mouthed  of  controversialists.  Even  Roger 
Williams,  the  father  of  religious  toleration,  could  not  endure  their  out- 
rages and  indecencies ;  and  although  he  would  not  suffer  the  civil  magis- 
trate to  trouble  them,  yet  he  did  not  spare  them  the  galling  chastisement 
of  the  tongue  and  pen. — See  his  book  entitled  "  George  Fox  Digged  out 
of  his  Burrows,"  and  Knowles's  "  Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,"  p.  384,  5. 
*  "  The  mind,"  says  Bishop  Hall  in  his  Epistle  on  '  The  Pleasure  of 
Study  and  Contemplation,'  "  the  mind  only,  that  honorable  and  divine 
part,  is  fittest  to  be  employed  of  those  who  would  reach  to  the  highest 
perfection  of  men,  and  be  more  than  the  most.  And  what  work  is  there 
of  the  mind  but  the  trade  of  a  scholar — study  ?  " 


75 

narrow  the  circle  of  my  professional  duties.  I  feel  that 
I  am  discharging  my  duty  as  a  Christian  minister,  if,  by 
any  thing  I  can  say,  I  can  induce  a  young  man  to  culti- 
vate the  high  powers  which  God  has  given  him,  and 
devote  them  to  the  increase  of  knowledge,  thereby 
enriching  his  own  mind,  and  at  the  same  time  fostering 
a  healthy  spirit  and  diffusing  a  wholesome  taste  through 
the  community.*  I  have  no  fear  that  the  path  of  politics 
will  be  deserted,  or  that  the  republic  will  suffer  detriment 
from  the  absence  of  candidates  for  its  offices  and  emol- 
uments. Alas !  these  will  always  be  too  attractive ; 
and  what  we  chiefly  need  is  some  counteracting  influ- 
ence, some  striking  example,  like  that  of  Dr.  Bowditch, 
to  convince  our  young  men  that  political  life  is  not  the 
only  road  to  eminence,  nor  the  only  adequate  and  hon- 
orable sphere  for  the  exercise  and  display  of  their  talents. 
For  affording  us  this  evidence,  his  memory  deserves  to 
be  honored,  and  his  name  to  be  held  in  everlasting  re- 
membrance. 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  a  remarkably  domestic  man.     His 
affections  clustered  around  his  own  fireside,  and  found 


*  "  If  the  invention  of  the  ship,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "  was  thought  so 
noble,  which  carrieth  riches  and  commodities  from  place  to  place,  and 
consociateth  the  most  remote  regions  in  participation  of  their  fruits,  how 
much  more  are  letters  to  he  magnified,  which,  as  ships,  pass  through  the 
vast  seas  of  time,  and  make  ages  so  distant  participate  of  the  wisdom, 
illuminations  and  inventions,  the  one  of  the  other." 

"  The  ink  of  the  doctors  and  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  "  says  another, 
"  are  of  equal  price." 


76 

their  most  delightful  exercise  in  his  "  family  of  love,"  as 
he  called  it  in  almost  his  last  moments.  His  attachment 
to  home  and  to  its  calm  and  simple  pleasures  was,  indeed, 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  traits  in  his  character,  and  one 
which  his  children  and  friends  will  look  back  upon  with 
the  greatest  satisfaction.  As  Sir  Thomas  More  says  of 
himself,  "he  devoted  the  little  time  which  he  could 
spare  from  his  avocations  abroad  to  his  family,  and  spent 
it  in  little  innocent  and  endearing  conversations  with  his 
wife  and  children ;  which,  though  some  might  think 
them  trifling  amusements,  he  placed  among  the  neces- 
sary duties  and  business  of  life ;  it  being  incumbent  on 
every  one  to  make  himself  as  agreeable  as  possible  to 
those  whom  nature  has  made,  or  he  himself  has  singled 
out  for,  his  companions  in  life."  * 

His  time  was  divided  between  his  office  and  his 
house;  and  that  must  have  been  a  strong  attraction, 
indeed,  that  could  draw  him  into  company.!  When  at 


*  "  Dum  foris  totum  ferme  diem  aliis  impertior,  reliquum  meis,  relinquo 
mihi,  hoc  est  literis,  nihil.  Nempe,  reverse  domum,  cum  uxore  fabulan- 
dum  est,  garriendum  cum  liberis,  colloquendum  cum  ministris.  Quae  ego 
omnia  inter  negotia  numero,  quando  fieri  necesse  est,  (necesse  est  autem 
nisi  velis  esse  domi  tuse  peregrinus),  et  danda  omnino  opera  est,  ut  quos 
vitse  tuae  comites  aut  natura  providit,  aut  fecit  casus,  aut  ipse  delegisti, 
his  ut  te  quam  jucundissimum  compares." — Preface  to  the  Utopia. 

f  If  any  one  would  know  "  how  a  day  should  be  spent,"  let  him  read 
Bishop  Hall's  delightful  Epistle  on  that  subject.  Among  other  excellent 
things,  he  says,  "  Sweet  is  the  destiny  of  all  trades,  whether  of  the  brows, 
or  of  the  mind.  God  never  allowed  any  man  to  do  nothing.  How 
miserable  is  the  condition  of  those  men,  which  spend  the  time  as  if  it 


77 

home,  his  time  was  spent  in  his  library,  which  he  loved 
to  have  considered  as  the  family  parlor.  By  very  early 
rising,  in  winter  two  hours  before  the  light,  "long  ere 
the  sound  of  any  bell  awoke  men  to  labor  or  to  de- 
votion," and  "  in  summer,"  like  Milton,  "  as  oft  with  the 
bird  that  first  rises  or  not  much  tardier,"  he  was  enabled 
to  accomplish  much  before  others  were  stirring.  "To 
these  morning  studies,"  he  used  to  say,  "  I  am  indebted 
for  all  my  mathematics."*  After  taking  his  evening  walk 
he  was  again  always  to  be  found  in  the  library,  pursuing 
the  same  attractive  studies,  but  ready  and  glad,  at  the 
entrance  of  any  visiter,  to  throw  aside  his  book,  unbend 
his  mind,  and  indulge  in  all  the  gayeties  of  a  light- 
hearted  conversation.! 


were  given  them,  and  not  lent ;  as  if  hours  were  waste  creatures,  and 
such  as  never  should  be  accounted  for ;  as  if  God  would  take  this  for  a 
good  bill  of  reckoning :  Item,  spent  upon  my  pleasures  forty  years  !  These 
men  shall  once  find,  that  no  blood  can  privilege  idleness,  and  that  nothing 
is  more  precious  to  God  than  that  which  they  desire  to  cast  away — time." 

*  He  might  literally  apply  to  himself  the  apology  of  the  great  Roman 
orator,  "  Quare  quis  tandem  me  reprehendat,  aut  quis  mihi  jure  succen- 
seat,  si  quantum  cseteris  ad  suas  res  obeundas,  quantum  ad  festos  dies 
ludorum  celebrandos,  quantum  ad  alias  voluptates,  et  ad  ipsam  requiem 
animi  et  corporis  conceditur  temporis ;  quantum  alii  tribuunt  tempesti- 
vis  conviviis ;  quantum  denique  alese,  quantum  pilse ;  tantum  mihi 
egomet  ad  ha3C  studia  recolenda  sumpsero  ?  " 

f  "  Before  my  meals  and  after,"  says  Bishop  Hall,  in  the  Epistle  just  re- 
ferred to,  "  I  let  myself  loose  from  all  thoughts,  and  now  would  forget 
that  I  had  ever  studied.  Company,  discourse,  recreations,  are  now  sea- 
sonable and  welcome.  After  my  latter  meal,  my  thoughts  are  slight. 
And  now  the  evening  is  come,  no  tradesman  doth  more  carefully  take  in 


78 

There  was  nothing  that  he  seemed  to  enjoy  more 
than  this  free  interchange  of  thought  on  all  subjects  of 
common  interest.  At  such  times  the  mathematician,  the 
astronomer,  the  man  of  science,  disappeared,  and  he 
presented  himself  as  the  frank,  easy,  familiar  friend.  One 
could  hardly  believe  that  this  agreeable,  fascinating  com- 
panion, who  talked  so  affably  and  pleasantly  on  all  the 
topics  of  the  day,  and  joined  so  heartily  in  the  quiet 
mirth  and  the  loud  laugh,  could  really  be  the  great 
mathematician  who  had  expounded  the  mechanism  of 
the  heavens,  and  taken  his  place  with  Newton,  and 
Leibnitz,  and  La  Place,  among  the  great  proficients  in 
exact  science.  To  hear  him  talk,  you  would  never  have 
suspected  that  he  knew  any  thing  about  science,  or 
cared  any  thing  about  it.  In  this  respect  he  resembled 
his  great  Scottish  contemporary,  who  has  delighted  the 
whole  world  by  his  writings.  You  might  have  visited 
him  in  that  library  from  one  year's  end  to  another,  and 
yet,  if  you  or  some  other  visiter  did  not  introduce  the 
subject,  I  venture  to  say  that  not  one  word  on  mathe- 
matics would  cross  his  lips.  He  had  no  pedantry  of  any 
kind.  Never  did  I  meet  with  a  scientific  or  literary  man 
so  entirely  devoid  of  all  cant  and  pretension.  In  con- 
versation he  had  the  simplicity  and  playfulness  and  un- 
affected manners  of  a  child.  His  own  remarks  "  seem- 


his  wares,  clear  his  shopboard,  and  shut  his  windows,  than  I  would  shut 
up  my  thoughts  and  clear  my  mind.  That  student  shall  live  miserably, 
which,  like  a  camel,  lies  down  under  his  burden." 


79 

ed  rather  to  escape  from  his  mind  than  to  be  produced 
by  it."  He  laughed  heartily,  and  rubbed  his  hands,  and 
jumped  up,  when  an  observation  was  made  that  greatly 
pleased  him,  because  it  was  natural  for  him  so  to  do, 
and  he  had  never  been  schooled  into  the  conventional 
proprieties  of  artificial  life,  nor  been  accustomed  to  con- 
ceal or  stifle  any  of  the  innocent  impulses  of  his  nature.* 
Who  that  once  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  visiting  him 


*  Dr.  Bowditch  used  to  relate  a  little  anecdote  concerning  himself, 
which  so  strongly  and  beautifully  illustrates  the  perfect  naturalness  of 
his  character,  that  I  will  venture  to  subjoin  it  in  a  note. 

It  will  be  recollected,  that  in  the  year  1824,  when  General  Lafayette, 
in  his  progress  through  the  country,  among  other  places,  visited  Boston, 
the  mayoralty  of  the  city  was  filled  by  the  Honorable  JOSIAH  QUINCY. 
Dr.  Bowditch,  in  common  with  all  the  world,  had  a  curiosity  to  behold 
the  entrance  of  the  nation's  guest  into  the  city ;  and  accordingly  ac- 
cepted an  invitation  from  a  friend,  whose  house  was  in  Colonnade  Row, 
to  take  a  station  on  his  balcony.  But  finding  that  the  chariot  wheels 
tarried,  and  the  General  delayed  his  coming,  he  thought  that  he 
should  have  time  to  go  down  to  his  office  to  transact  a  little  business, 
and  return  in  season  for  the  spectacle.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  the  pro- 
cession had  arrived  and  passed  on,  and  was  fast  advancing  to  State 
street.  He  concluded,  therefore,  to  wait  where  he  was,  and,  in  order  to 
get  a  nearer  and  better  view,  took  his  stand  on  the  steps  of  the  United 
States'  Bank.  On  the  appearance  of  the  barouche  in  which  Lafayette 
was  seated,  Dr.  Bowditch  remarked  that  he  was  glad  to  see  Mr.  Quincy 
at  his  side ;  he  was  the  proper  man  for  that  place,  being  the  son  of  one 
of  the  earliest  and  best  of  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution.  "  As  the  shout 
of  the  multitude  rose  unto  heaven,"  he  said, "  I  know  not  how  it  hap- 
pened, bat  I  could  not  keep  my  place ;  my  hat  would  not  stay  on  my 
head,  nor  could  I  hold  my  tongue.  And,  to  my  astonishment,  I  found 
myself,  all  at  once,  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd  by  the  side  of  the  chariot, 
and  shouting  with  the  rest  at  the  top  of  my  voice."  The  President  of  the 
University  recollects  distinctly  seeing  him  in  the  position  and  attitude 
thus  described. 


80 

in  that  library,  can  ever  forget  the  scene  1  Methinks  I 
see  him  now,  in  my  mind's  eye,  the  venerable  man, 
sitting  there  close  by  his  old-fashioned  blazing  wood 
fire,  bending  over  his  favorite  little  desk,  looking 
like  one  of  the  old  philosophers,  with  his  silvery  hair, 
and  noble  forehead,  and  beaming  eye,  and  benign 
countenance ;  whilst  all  around  him  are  ranged  the 
depositories  of  the  wisdom  and  science  of  departed 
sages  and  philosophers,  who  seem  to  look  down  upon 
him  benignantly  from  their  quiet  places,  and  spontane- 
ously and  silently  to  give  forth  to  him  their  instructions. 
On  entering  this,  the  noblest  repository  of  scientific 
works  in  the  country,  I  almost  fancy  I  hear  him  saying 
with  Heinsius,  the  keeper  of  the  library  at  Ley  den,  "  I 
no  sooner  come  into  my  library,  than  I  bolt  the  door 
after  me,  excluding  ambition,  avarice,  and  all  such  vices ; 
and,  in  the  very  lap  of  eternity,  amidst  so  many  divine 
souls,  I  take  my  seat  with  so  lofty  a  spirit  and  such 
sweet  content,  that  I  pity  all  the  great  and  rich  who 
know  not  this  happiness."  *  If  it  be  possible,  let  that 
library  be  kept  together  as  a  memorial  of  its  founder. 


At  first  sight  there  may  seem  someting  ludicrous  and  puerile  in  this 
grave  philosopher  and  calculator,  this  votary  of  abstract  science,  huzza- 
ing in  a  mixed  crowd  on  a  city's  holiday.  But  to  me  it  seems  a  most 
natural  and  beautiful  expression  of  his  simplicity,  his  self-forgetfulness, 
his  utter  unconsciousness  of  greatness,  his  generous  sympathy  with  the 
people,  and  his  grateful  and  ardent  patriotism.  This  little  incident  can- 
not fail  to  raise  him  in  the  estimation  of  every  right-minded  and  single- 
hearted  man. 

*  "  Libraries  are  the  shrines  where  all  the  relics  of  the  ancient  saints, 


81 

It  may  here  be  remarked,  that  although  mathematics 
was  his  chief  and  favorite  pursuit,  Dr.  Bowditch  still  had 
a  taste  and  love  for  general  literature.  He  was  fond  of 
Shakspeare,  and  remembered  and  could  repeat  whole 
passages  from  his  plays.  He  loved  poetry,  particularly 
the  poetry  of  Burns  and  our  own  Bryant  and  Sprague.* 
Many  of  his  favorite  pieces  he  not  only  had  by  heart,  but 
also  had  them  written  down,  for  convenience'  sake,  on  the 


full  of  true  virtue,  and  that  without  delusion  or  imposture,  are  preserved 
and  reposed." — Lord  Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning. 

"  For  him  was  lever  han  at  his  beddes  head 

A  twenty  bokes,  clothed  in  black  or  red, 

Of  Aristotle  or  his  philosophy, 

Than  robes  riche,  or  fidel,  or  sautrie. 

And  all  that  he  might  of  his  friends  hente, 

On  bokes  and  on  lerning  he  it  spente." — Chaucer. 

*  One  of  Dr.  Bowditch's  favorite  pieces,  which  he  had  often  upon  his 
lips,  was  that  exquisite  gem  of  Charles  Sprague's,  entitled  "  The  Wing- 
ed Worshippers ;  addressed  to  two  Swallows,  that  flew  into  a  Church 
during  religious  service,"  beginning  as  follows : — 

"  Gay,  guiltless  pair, 
What  seek  ye  from  the  fields  of  heaven  ? 

Ye  have  no  need  of  prayer, 
Ye  have  no  sins  to  be  forgiven." 

What  has  become  of  the  author  of  the  splendid  Ode  on  Shaks- 
peare ?  Is  he  lost  for  ever  to  the  Muses,  and  are  we  to  have  nothing  more 
from  his  sweet  reed  ?  Will  he  not  at  least  collect  his  poems  into  a  vol- 
ume for  the  world's  delight  ? — "  A  bird  that  can  and  will  not  sing " 

On  the  appearance  of  Milliard  and  Gray's  beautiful  edition  of 
Milton's  Poetical  Works,  Dr.  Bowditch  purchased  a  copy,  and  soon  after 
said  to  one  of  the  firm,  Mr.  James  Brown,  "  I  thank  you  for  publishing 
that  edition,  for  you  have  led  me  to  read  Milton  through  once  more  with 
increased  delight." 

11 


82 

covers  of  his  mathematical  common-place  book.  I  re- 
collect, among  others,  thus  copied  off,  "  The  Cotter's 
Saturday  Night,"  a  selection  which  evinced  at  the  same 
time  his  good  feeling  and  his  good  taste.  I  also  recol- 
lect observing  on  his  copy  of  Newton's  Principia  many 
commendatory  verses  on  Newton,  selected  from  Voltaire 
and  other  French  poets. 

But  I  must  hasten  on  to  speak,  as  briefly  and  com- 
prehensively as  I  can,  of  what  is  the  most  important 
part  of  every  man — namely,  his  moral  and  religious 
character — the  qualities  of  his  heart,  and  his  principles 
of  action. 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  a  man  of  unsullied  purity,  the 
most  rigid  integrity,  and  the  most  uncompromising 
principle.  Through  life,  truth  seems  to  have  been  at 
once  the  great  object  of  his  pursuit,  and  his  ruling  prin- 
ciple of  action.  "  FOLLOW  TRUTH,"  might  have  been 
the  motto  on  his  escutcheon.  "  Truth!  Truth!  Truth!" 
were  among  his  last  words  to  one  whom  he  dearly 
loved.  He  was  himself  perfectly  transparent.  A  child 
could  see  through  him.*  There  was  no  opaqueness  in 


*  Dr.  Bowditch  was  perfectly  fair  and  just  in  the  estimate  which  he 
formed  of  his  own  capacities  and  gifts.  He  did  not,  on  the  one  hand, 
overrate  his  talents ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  did  he,  as  some  do,  with  a 
sort  of  back-handed  humility,  purposely  undervalue  his  powers,  in  order 
to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  being  contradicted  by  those  about  him  and  told 
that  he  was  really  a  much  greater  man  than  he  seemed  willing  to  admit. 
As  an  illustration  of  this,  let  me  mention  a  little  conversation  of  his. 
"  People,"  said  he,  "  are  very  kind  and  polite,  in  mentioning  me  in  the 
same  breath  with  La  Place,  and  blending  my  name  with  his.  But  they 


83 

his  heart,  any  more  than  in  his  intellect.  It  was  as  clear 
as  crystal,  and  the  rays  of  moral  truth  were  transmitted 
through  it  without  being  refracted  or  tinged.  In  all  his 
intercourse  and  transactions  he  was  remarkably  frank 
and  candid.  He  revealed  himself  entirely.  He  had 
no  secrets.  He  kept  nothing  back,  for  he  had  nothing 
to  conceal.  He  lived  openly,  and  talked  freely,  of 
himself,  and  of  his  doings,  and  of  every  thing  that  was 
uppermost  in  his  mind.  He  never  hesitated  to  speak 
out  what  he  thought  on  all  subjects,  public  and  private, 
and  he  avowed  his  opinions  of  men  and  things  with  the 
utmost  freedom  and  unconcern.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  he  never  had  the  fear  of  man  before  his  eyes,  and 
that  it  never  checked,  in  the  least,  the  free  and  full  ut- 
terance of  his  sentiments. 

He  was  a  singularly  modest  man.  He  made  no 
pretensions  himself,  and  there  was  nothing  that  he  so 
much  despised  in  others.*  He  was  remarkably  simple 


mistake  both  me  and  him ;  we  are  very  different  men.  I  trust  I  under- 
stand his  works,  and  can  supply  his  deficiencies,  and  correct  his  errors, 
and  render  his  book  more  intelligible,  and  record  the  successive  advance- 
ments of  the  science,  and  perhaps  append  some  improvements.  But  La 
Place  was  a  genius,  a  discoverer,  an  inventor.  And  yet  I  hope  I  know 
as  much  about  mathematics  as  Playfair  ! " 

*  As  an  illustration  of  Dr.  Bowditch's  remarkable  modesty  and 
simplicity  of  character,  I  relate  the  following  little  incident,  for  which  I 
am  indebted  to  JOHN  R.  ADAN,  Esq.,  one  of  those  who  were  favored 
with  his  friendship  and  confidence.  He  tells  me  that,  in  the  year  1811, 
the  Hon.  Walter  Folger,  of  Nantucket,  a  self-educated  man,  and  quite 
eminent  as  a  mathematician,  and  highly  respectable  in  every  point  of 


84 

in  all  his  manners  and  intercourse  with  the  world.  He 
put  on  no  airs  and  assumed  no  superiority  on  the  ground 
of  his  intellectual  attainments,  but  put  himself  on  a 
level  with  every  one  with  whom  he  had  any  concern. 
He  reverenced  integrity  and  truth  wherever  he  found 
them,  in  whatever  condition  in  life.  He  felt  and  showed 
no  respect  for  mere  wealth  or  rank.  He  fearlessly  re- 
buked, to  his  face,  the  mean  and  purse-proud  nabob, 
and  "  condescended  to  men  of  low  estate. "' 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  a  truly  conscientious  man.  He 
was  always  true  to  his  moral  as  well  as  intellectual  con- 
victions, and  followed  them  whithersoever  they  led. 
He  had  great  faith  in  the  rectitude  of  his  moral  percep- 
tions, and  in  the  primary  decisions  of  his  own  judgment 
and  moral  sense ;  and  he  carried  them  forth  and  acted 


view,  having  been  successively  a  judge  of  the  Common  Pleas,  a  senator 
in  the  Legislature  of  this  State,  and  a  member  of  Congress,  came  to 
Boston,  and  expressed  a  desire  to  see  Mr.  Bowditch.  Mr.  Adan  accord- 
ingly accompanied  him  to  Salem.  Mr.  Folger  immediately  proceeded 
alone  to  Mr.  Bowditch's  house,  and  knocked  at  the  door,  which  was 
opened  by  Mr.  Bowditch  himself,  when  the  following  conversation  en- 
sued. Folger.  "  Is  Mr.  Bowditch  at  home  ?  "  Bowditch.  "  Yes,  sir, 
that  is  my  name."  F.  "  But  I  wish  to  see  Mr.  Bowditch,  the  astron- 
omer and  mathematician."  B.  "Well,  sir,  folks  sometimes  call  me  by 
those  names."  F.  "  My  name,  sir,  is  Walter  Folger,  of  Nantucket.  I 
have  long  corresponded  with  Mr.  Bowditch  the  mathematician,  and  I 
want  to  see  him."  B.  "  I  am  the  very  person,  then,  and  I  am  very 
happy  to  see  you.  Walk  in."  F.  "  Well,  upon  my  word,  sir,  I  did  not 
expect  to  find  my  correspondent  so  young  a  person.  I  thought  I  should 
see  an  older  head  upon  those  shoulders."  He  went  in,  and  had  a  most 
delightful  interview.  Mr.  B.  was  at  this  time  thirty-eight  years  old. 


.    85 

them  out  instantly.  The  word  followed  the  thought, 
and  the  deed  the  feeling,  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning. 
This  straight-forwardness  and  frankness  were  among 
the  secret  causes  of  the  remarkable  influence  which  he 
confessedly  exercised  over  the  minds  and  judgments  of 
others.  By  his  honesty,  as  well  as  by  his  resoluteness 
and  decision,  he  was  the  main-spring  of  every  thing 
with  which  he  was  connected.  By  this  moral  influence 
he  controlled  and  swayed  all  men  with  whom  he  was 
associated.  As  Ben  Jonson  says  of  Lord  Bacon,  "he 
commanded  where  he  spoke."  * 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  a  man  of  ardent  natural  feelings, 
and  of  an  impetuous  temperament.  He  was  strong  in 
his  attachment  to  men  and  to  opinions,  and  was  not 
easily  turned  from  any  course  of  speculation  or  action, 
which  he  had  once  satisfied  himself  was  right,  wise 
and  good.  At  the  same  time,  he  always  kept  his  mind 
open  to  evidence ;  and  if  you  brought  before  him  new 
facts  and  arguments,  he  would  reconsider  the  subject, — 

*  The  Hon.  SAMUEL  T.  ARMSTRONG,  formerly  Lieutenant  Governor 
of  the  Commonwealth,  and  under  whose  administration,  as  Mayor  of  the 
City,  the  iron  fence  round  the  Common  was  undertaken  and  completed, 
has  told  me  the  following  anecdote,  which  illustrates  Dr.  Bowditch's 
decision  of  character.  He  was  standing  at  the  bottom  of  the  Common 
one  day,  conversing  with  Dr.  Bowditch,  and,  among  other  things,  men- 
tioned the  obstacles  that  had  been  thrown  in  his  way  in  attempting  to 
carry  the  mall  through  the  bury  ing-ground.  "  Sir,"  said  Dr.  Bowditch, 
"  it  depends  entirely  upon  you.  If  you  say  '  VoloJ  it  will  go.  If  you  say 
'  NoloJ  it  won't."  "I  did  not  exactly  understand  his  Latin  words,"  said 
the  Mayor,  "  but  I  knew  what  he  meant,  and  I  acted  accordingly."  He 
said  "  Volo,"  and  the  thing  was  done. 


86     . 

deliberately,  not  hastily, — and  the  next  day,  perhaps, 
would  tell  you  that  you  were  in  the  right,  and  that  he 
had  altered  his  mind.  He  was  sometimes  quick,  warm, 
and  vehement  in  expressing  his  disapprobation  of  the 
character  or  conduct  of  an  individual,  particularly  if  he 
thought  that  the  person  had  practised  anything  like 
duplicity  or  fraud.  In  such  cases,  his  indignation  was 
absolutely  scorching  and  withering.  But  he  never 
cherished  any  personal  resentments  in  his  bosom.  He 
did  not  let  the  sun  go  down  upon  his  wrath.  His 
anger  was  like  a  cloud,  which  passes  over  the  disk  of 
the  moon,  and  leaves  it  as  mild  and  clear  as  before ;  or, 
as  the  judicious  Hooker's  was  represented  to  be,  "  like 
a  vial  of  clear  water,  which,  when  shook,  beads  at  the 
top,  but  instantly  subsides,  without  any  soil  or  sediment 
of  uncharitableness." 

Let  me  relate  an  incident  illustrative  of  this  remark- 
able trait  in  his  character.  Dr.  Bowditch  had  been 
preparing  a  plan  of  the  town  of  Salem,  which  he 
intended  soon  to  publish.  It  had  been  the  fruit  of 
much  labor  and  care.  By  some  means  or  other,  an 
individual  in  the  town  had  surreptitiously  got  posses- 
sion of  it,  and  had  the  audacity  to  issue  proposals  to 
publish  it  as  his  own.  This  was  too  much  for  Dr. 
Bowditch  to  bear.  He  instantly  went  to  the  person, 
and  burst  out  in  the  following  strain :  "  You  villain ! 
how  dare  you  do  this?  What  do  you  mean  by  it? 
If  you  presume  to  proceed  any  farther  in  this  busi- 
ness, I  will  prosecute  you  to  the  utmost  extent  of  the 


87 

law."  The  poor  fellow  cowered  before  the  storm  of 
his  indignation,  and  was  silent ;  for  his  wrath  was  terri- 
ble. Dr.  Bowditch  went  home,  and  slept  on  it ;  and 
the  next  day,  hearing  from  some  authentic  source  that 
the  man  was  extremely  poor,  and  had  probably  been 
driven  by  the  necessities  of  his  family  to  commit  this 
audacious  plagiarism,  his  feelings  were  touched,  his 
heart  relented,  his  anger  melted  away  like  wax.  He 
went  to  him  again,  and  said,  "  Sir,  you  did  very  wrong, 
and  you  know  it,  to  appropriate  to  your  own  use  and 
benefit  the  fruit  of  my  labors.  But  I  understand  you 
are  poor,  and  have  a  family  to  support.  I  feel  for  you, 
and  will  help  you.  That  plan  is  unfinished,  and  con- 
tains errors  that  would  have  disgraced  you  and  me  had 
it  been  published  in  the  state  in  which  you  found  it. 
I'll  tell  you  what  I  will  do.  I  will  finish  the  plan ;  I 
will  correct  the  errors ;  and  then  you  shall  publish  it 
for  your  own  benefit,  and  I  will  head  the  subscription 
list  with  my  name." 

What  a  sublime,  noble,  Christian  spirit  was  there 
manifested !  This  was  really  overcoming  evil  with 
good,  and  pouring  coals  of  fire  upon  the  poor  man's 
head.  The  natural  feeling  of  resentment,  which  God 
has  implanted  within  all  bosoms  for  our  protection 
against  sudden  assault  and  injury,  was  overruled  and 
conquered  by  the  higher,  the  sovereign  principle  of 


conscience.* 


*  Compare  Bishop  Butler's  admirable  sermons  on  "  Human  Nature  " 
and  "  Resentment,"  in  which  this  subject  is  handled  in  a  masterly  man- 


88 

I  ought  to  have  mentioned,  in  an  earlier  part  of  this 
discourse,  that  Dr.  Bowditch  was,  in  all  his  habits  of  life, 
a  very  regular  and  temperate  man.  He  never  tasted 
any  wine  till  the  age  of  thirty-five.*  He  approved  the 
remarkable  changes  which  have  been  effected  in  the 
customs  of  society,  within  a  few  years,  by  "  The  Tem- 
perance Reform,"  and  he  heartily  rejoiced  in  the  success 
of  that  good  cause.  God  bless  it  and  speed  it !  and 
give  its  advocates  discretion  and  sobriety  as  well  as 
courage  and  zeal !  If  they  would  crush  the  serpent, 
they  must  have  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent  and  the 
harmlessness  of  the  dove. 

I  hope  I  may  be  pardoned  in  now  mentioning  a  cir- 
cumstance, known  probably  only  to  myself,  and  which, 
though  of  a  personal  nature,  I  venture  to  relate,  both  in 
discharge  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  owe  to  his 
memory,  and  as  a  very  striking  illustration  of  two  traits 
in  his  character — his  independence,  and  the  strength 
and  the  constancy  of  his  attachments.  At  an  early 
stage  in  my  ministry  in  this  place,  some  twelve  years 

ner  by  the  prince  of  ethical  writers.  Why  is  it  that  we  hear,  in  these 
days,  the  pernicious  sentiment  avowed  and  inculcated,  that  we  are  to 
follow  impulse  and  feeling  rather  than  reason  and  principle?  So 
thought  not  those  great  lights  of  philosophy,  Samuel  Butler  and  John 
Locke. 

*  During  the  latter  years  of  his  life  Dr.  Bowditch  was  accustomed  to 
drink  two  glasses  of  wine  a  day,  one  after  dinner,  and  the  other  in  the 
evening.  This  he  called  his  "  certain  quantity."  If  he  ever  exceeded 
this,  which  was  seldom  or  never,  he  classed  the  excess,  in  his  mathe- 
matical phrase,  among  "  the  uncertain  quantities." 


80 

ago, — at  one  of  those  periods  of  discouragement  and 
despondency  through  which  every  young  and  inexperi- 
enced minister  is  called  to  pass,  particularly  in  a  large 
city  like  this,  and  which  are  calculated  to  cower  and 
crush  the  spirit  of  every  one  who  has  not  nerves  of 
steel  and  a  heart  of  flint, — at  that  trying  moment  Dr. 
Bowditch  stood  by  me  firm  as  a  rock.  He  assured 
me  of  his  confidence,  his  approbation,  and  his  firm 
adherence.  "  Never  mind  it,"  said  he,  "  go  on  and  do 
your  duty,  and  be  not  anxious  about  the  result.  I  will 
stand  by  you  to  the  last."  These  few  words,  from  such 
a  man,  were  encouraging.  They  cheered  my  heart, 
they  nerved  my  mind,  they  strengthened  my  hands, 
they  enabled  me  to  go  forward  without  fear.  I  felt 
as  though  I  had  Atlas  under  me,  shoring  me  up.*  This 
assurance,  too,  was  entirely  voluntary  and  unsought; 
and  only  a  few  months  before  his  death  he  again  al- 
luded to  the  subject,  commended  the  quiet  and  steady 
course  which  I  had  pursued,  and  congratulated  me  on 
the  result  in  the  peaceful  and  prosperous  condition  of 
the  parish. 

No  one  has  ever  before  heard  me,  in  public  or  pri- 
vate, allude  to  this  subject.  For  I  am  not  one  of  those 
who  tell  their  griefs  and  sue  for  sympathy.  I  appeal  to 
you,  my  faithful  parishioners,  whether  you  have  ever 
heard  me  lisp  a  syllable  of  complaint  on  this  point.  I 


Atlas, 


sethereum  qui  i'e/t  cervicibus  axem." 

12 


90 

kept  my  feelings  to  myself;  and  I  now  speak  thus  pub- 
licly of  the  matter,  as  a  mere  incident  in  the  annals  gf 
the  parish,  and  with  no  feeling  but  that  of  gratitude  to 
the  memory  of  my  independent  and  unflinching  friend.* 

*  Next  to  the  inestimable  service  of  parental  guidance  and  instruc- 
tion, I  have  always  considered  this  the  greatest  favor  ever  rendered  to 
me  in  the  whole  course  of  my  life,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  price- 
less benefit  conferred  on  me  by  him  who  was  the  benefactor  of  my 
youthful  mind,  and  first  imbued  it  with  a  love  of  good  learning.  It  gives 
me  pleasure  thus  to  acknowledge  the  debt  which  I  owe  to  my  early 
instructer,  B.  A.  GOULD,  Esq.  (for  fourteen  years,  from  1814  to  1828,  the 
accomplished  and  successful  Master  of  the  Boston  Latin  School)  to  whom 
I  can  in  literal  truth  apply  the  words  in  which  Cicero  speaks  of  his  pre- 
ceptor, Licinius  Archias : — "  Si  quid  est  in  me  ingenii,  quod  sentio  quam 
sit  exiguum ;  aut  si  qua  exercitatio  dicendi,  in  qua  me  non  infitior  medi- 
ocriter  esse  versatum  ;  aut  si  hujusce  rei  ratio  aliqua,  ab  optimarum 
artium  studiis  ac  discipline,  profecta,  a  qua  ego  nullum  confiteor  setatis 
meae  tempus  abhorruisse ;  earum  rerum  omnium  vel  in  primis  hie  A. 
Licinius  fructum  a  me  repetere  prope  suo  jure  debet.  Nam  quoad  lon- 
gissime  potest  mens  mea  respicere  spatium  prseteriti  temporis,  et  pueri- 
tise  memoriam  recordari  ultimam,  inde  usque  repetens,  hunc  video  mihi 
principem  et  ad  suscipiendam  et  ad  ingrediendam  rationem  horum  stu- 
diorum  extitisse." 

When,  in  the  year  1828,  certain  measures  and  occurrences  took 
place,  in  connection  with  the  College,  one  in  particular  of  a  very  painful 
nature,  my  views  and  feelings  were  probably  as  strong,  and  as  strongly 
expressed,  as  those  of  any  person  in  the  community ;  but  not  more  strongly 
to  others  than  they  were  to  Dr.  Bowditch  himself.  More  than  once  I 
have  had  long  and  warm  conversations  with  him  on  these  points  ;  and 
though  my  views  were  unaltered,  I  will  bear  testimony  to  the  perfect 
kindness  and  candor  with  which  he  listened  to  my  dissent ;  and  this  is 
not  the  only  instance  in  which  I  have  differed  from  him  decidedly,  but 
amicably.  When  these  facts  are  considered,  and  it  is  known  that  his 
eulogist  has  never  been  his  echo  nor  parasite,  it  is  hoped  that  the  strong 
terms  in  which  his  character  has  been  commended  in  this  Discourse  will 


91 

In  his  religious  views,  Dr.  Bowditch  was,  from  ex- 
amination and  conviction,  a  firm  and  decided  Unitarian. 
But  he  had  no  taste  for  the  polemics  or  peculiarities  of 
any  sect,  and  did  not  love  to  dwell  on  the  distinctive 
and  dividing  points  of  Christian  doctrine.  His  religion 
was  rather  an  inward  sentiment,  flowing  out  into  the 
life,  and  revealing  itself  in  his  character  and  actions. 
It  was  at  all  times,  and  at  all  periods  of  his  life,  a  con- 
trolling and  sustaining  principle.  He  confided  in  the 
providence  and  benignity  of  his  Heavenly  Father,  as 
revealed  by  his  blessed  Son,  our  Lo.rd,  and  had  the 
most  unshaken  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  rectitude 
of  all  the  divine  appointments.  He  looked  forward  with 
firm  faith  to  an  immortality  in  the  spiritual  world. 

He  said  to  one,  in  his  last  illness,  "From  my  boyhood 
my  mind  has  been  religiously  impressed.  I  never  did 
or  could  question  the  existence  of  a  Superintending 
Being,  and  that  he  took  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
I  have  always  endeavored  to  regulate  my  life  in  subjec- 
tion to  his  will,  and  studied  to  bring  my  mind  to  an 
acquiescence  in  his  dispensations  ;  and  now,  at  its  close, 
I  look  back  with  gratitude  for  the  manner  in  which  he 
has  distinguished  me,  and  for  the  many  blessings  of  my 


not  be  set  down  to  flattery  nor  to  the  partiality  of  friendship.  I  am  not 
conscious  of  having  overstated  or  exaggerated  anything.  I  certainly  have 
aimed  at  drawing  a  true  and  just  portrait.  Those  who  knew  him  per- 
sonally, will  judge  how  far  I  have  succeeded.  While  writing,  I  feel  all 
the  time  as  though  I  heard  his  voice  in  my  ear — "  If  you  say  anything 
about  me,  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth." 


92 

lot.  I  can  only  say  that  I  am  content,  that  I  go  willingly, 
resigned,  and  satisfied."  To  another  he  said,  "In  my 
youth  I  fell  in  with  some  young  associates  who  were 
skeptically  disposed,  having  read  the  books  and  imbibed 
the  notions  of  Voltaire  and  Paine,  and  they  labored  hard 
to  make  me  of  the  same  way  of  thinking  with  them- 
selves. But  I  battled  it  with  them  stoutly,  not  with  the 
logic  of  Locke,  for  I  knew  nothing  about  that,  but  with 
the  logic  here" — pointing  to  his  breast. 

Dr.  Bowditch  was  very  familiar  with  the  Scriptures, 
both  of  the  Old.  and  New  Testaments,  more  so  than 
some  professed  theologians  who  make  it  their  especial 
study.  He  had  read  the  Bible  in  his  childhood,  under 
the  eye  of  a  pious  mother,  and  he  loved  to  quote  and 
repeat  the  sublime  and  touching  language  of  Holy 
Writ.  * 


*  I  must  always  deeply  regret,  as  a  Christian  minister,  believing  in 
the  authority  and  importance  of  the  Christian  ordinances,  that  Dr. 
Bowditch  did  not  throw  the  weight  of  a.  public  profession  of  religion  into 
the  scale  of  Christianity,  and  thereby  satisfy  the  world,  as  he  had  already 
and  amply  satisfied  his  family  and  his  friends,  of  the  strength  and  reality 
of  his  religious  faith.  The  public  testimony  of  such  a  man,  possessed 
of  such  a  sound,  clear,  discriminating  mind,  and  of  such  acute  and  logical 
powers,  to  the  truth  and  worth  of  our  holy  religion,  would  have  been  in- 
valuable. I  believe  that  he  was  deterred  from  doing  this  solely  by  his 
general  dislike  of  professions  of  every  kind.  He  certainly  could  not  have 
been  prevented  by  shame  or  the  fear  of  man.  He  used  to  say  that  people 
must  judge  of  him  by  what  he  was  and  did,  and  not  by  what  he  profess- 
ed. But  yet,  is  not  the  profession  of  Christianity,  by  an  observance  of 
its  peculiar  ordinance,  an  act  ? — and  is  not  the  omission  of  it  equally  an 
act  ? — A  sense  of  duty  compels  me  to  say  thus  much  on  this  subject. 


93 

Such,  my  hearers,  had  been  the  life,  and  such  the 
character  of  our  distinguished  fellow-citizen  and  beloved 
fellow-worshipper ;  and  such  was  he  to  the  last,  through 
all  the  agonies  of  a  most  distressing  illness.  In  the 
midst  of  health  and  usefulness,  in  the  full  discharge  of 
the  duties  of  life,  and  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  its  satis- 
factions, the  summons  suddenly  comes  to  him  to  leave 
it.  And  he  meets  the  summons  with  the  utmost  equa- 
nimity and  composure,  with  the  submission  of  a  philoso- 
pher and  with  the  resignation  of  a  Christian.  He  cer- 
tainly had  much  to  live  for — few  have  more — but  he 
gave  up  all  without  repining  or  complaint.  He  said 
he  should  have  liked  to  live  a  little  longer,  to  complete 
his  great  work,  and  see  his  younger  children  grown  up 
and  settled  in  life.  "But  I  am  perfectly  happy,"  he 
added,  "  and  ready  to  go,  and  entirely  resigned  to  the 
will  of  Providence."  He  arranged  all  his  affairs,  gave 
his  directions  with  minuteness,  and  dictated  and  signed 
his  last  will  and  testament.  While  his  strength  per- 
mitted, he  continued  to  attend  to  the  necessary  affairs 
of  his  office,  and  on  the  day  previous  to  his  death  put 
his  name  to  an  important  instrument.  In  the  intervals 
of  pain  he  prepared,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  the 
remaining  copy  and  corrected  the  proof  sheets  of  the 
fourth  volume  of  his  great  work,  the  printing  of  which 
was  nearly  finished  at  the  time  of  his  death.  It  is  a 
little  remarkable  that  the  last  page  that  he  read  was  the 
one  thousandth.  It  was  gratifying  to  him  to  find  that 
his  mind  was  unenfeebled  by  disease  and  pain ;  and  one 


94 

day,  after  solving  one  of  the  hardest  problems  in  the 
book,  he  exclaimed,  in  his  enthusiastic  way,  "  I  feel  that 
I  am  Nathaniel  Bow  ditch  still — only  a  little  weaker." 

He  continued,  indeed,  in  all  respects,  the  same  man 
to  the  last.  He  did  not  think  that  this  was  the  time  to 
put  on  a  new  face  or  assume  a  new  character.  His 
feelings  were  unaffected,  his  manners  unchanged,  by  the 
prospect  before  him.  He  seemed  to  those  about  him 
only  to  be  going  on  a  long  journey.  To  the  end,  he 
manifested  the  same  cheerfulness,  nay  pleasantry,  which 
he  had  when  in  health,  without,  however,  the  least 
admixture  of  levity.  In  his  great  kindness,  he  exerted 
himself  to  see  many  friends,  every  one  of  whom,  I 
believe,  will  bear  testimony  to  his  calm,  serene  state  of 
mind.  The  words  which  he  spoke  in  those  precious 
interviews  they  will  gather  up  and  treasure  in  their 
memory,  and  will  never  forget  them  so  long  as  they  live.* 
She  certainly  will  not,  to  whom,  when  on  her  taking 
leave  of  him  she  had  said  "  Good  night,"  he  replied, 


*  Will  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Commonwealth,  will  the  President 
of  the  University,  ever  forget  their  interviews  with  the  dying  philoso- 
pher ?  The  Governor,  in  his  beautiful  address  to  the  Academy,  on 
introducing  the  Resolutions  that  were  passed  in  honor  of  their  illustrious 
associate,  after  briefly  describing  his  interview,  alludes,  in  a  very  modest 
and  touching  manner,  to  the  commendation  passed  by  the  departing 
sage  on  a  recent  and  most  painful  act  of  his  executive  authority.  The 
Governor  should  know  that  the  language  of  Dr.  Bowditch  is  but  the 
expression  of  the  public  mind,  and  that  he  will  be  sustained  in  all  his 
measures  to  maintain  the  majesty  and  supremacy  of  the  laws,  and 
preserve  the  public  order  and  peace. 


95 

"  No,  my  dear,  say  not '  Good  night,'  but '  Good  morn- 
ing,' for  the  next  time  we  meet  will  be  on  the  morning 
of  the  resurrection." 

One  day,  toward  the  close  of  his  lingering  illness, 
after  he  had  himself  given  up  all  hope  of  recovery,  he 
asked  one  who  stood  by  him  what  were  the  two  Greek 
words  which  signify  "easy  death."  The  word  not 
immediately  suggesting  itself  to  the  person,  and  he 
having  mentioned  over  several  phrases  and  combinations 
of  words,  Dr.  Bowditch  said,  "No,  you  have  not  got 
the  right  word ;  but  you  will  find  it  in  Pope's  Corres- 
pondence." The  person  found  the  letter,  which  was 
the  last  that  Dr.  Arbuthnot  *  wrote  to  his  friend.  The 
conclusion  of  it  is  as  follows ;  "  A  recovery,  in  my  case, 
and  at  my  age,  is  impossible.  The  kindest  wish  of  my 
friends  is  euthanasia."  On  hearing  this  read,  Dr.  Bow- 
ditch  said,  "Yes,  that  is  the  word,  euthanasia.  That 
letter  I  read  forty  years  ago,  and  I  have  not  seen  it  since. 
It  made  an  impression  on  my  mind  which  is  still  fresh. 
It  struck  me,  at  the  time  I  read  it,  that  the  good  physi- 


*  Dr.  Arbuthnot  was  an  eminent  physician  and  brilliant  wit  in  the 
time  of  Queen  Anne,  the  contemporary  and  friend  of  Swift  and  Pope. 
He  died  in  1735.  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Life  of  Pope,  says  of  him, 
"  Arbuthnot  was  a  man  of  great  comprehension,  skilful  in  his  practice, 
versed  in  the  sciences,  acquainted  with  ancient  literature,  and  able  to 
animate  his  mass  of  knowledge  by  a  bright  and  active  imagination  ;  a 
scholar,  with  great  brilliance  of  wit ;  a  wit,  who,  in  the  crowd  of  life, 
retained  and  discovered  a  noble  ardor  of  religious  zeal ;  a  man  estimable 
for  his  learning,  amiable  for  his  life,  and  venerable  for  his  piety." 


96 

cian  who  wrote  it  would  certainly  have  an  easy  death. 
It  could  not  be  otherwise.  The  excellent,  the  virtuous, 
must  be  happy  in  their  death."  He  afterwards  fre- 
quently recurred  to  this  subject,  and  the  day  previous 
to  his  departure,  he  said,  "  This  is,  indeed,  euthanasia." 
Through  the  whole  of  his  illness  he  manifested  the 
same  happy  and  delightful  frame  of  mind.  His  room 
did  not  appear  like  the  chamber  of  sickness  and  disso- 
lution. The  light  of  his  serene  and  placid  countenance 
dispelled  all  gloom,  and  his  cheerful  composure  robbed 
death  of  all  its  bitterness  and  anguish.  He  exemplified 
in  his  own  case  the  sentiment  so  beautifully  expressed 
by  Hafiz,  the  Persian  poet,  which  he  loved  to  repeat : — 

"  On  parents'  knees,  a  naked,  new-born  child, 
Weeping  thou  sat'st,  whilst  all  around  thee  smiled ; 
So  live,  that  sinking  in  thy  last,  long  sleep, 
Calm  thou  may'st  smile,  whilst  all  around  thee  weep." 

He  did  not  wish  to  see  those  about  him  look  sad 
and  gloomy.  On  one  occasion  he  said,  "I  feel  no 
gloom  within  me ;  why  should  you  wear  it  on  your  fa- 
ces ?  "  And  then  he  called  for  Bryant's  Poems,  and 
desired  them  to  read  his  favorite  piece,  "  The  Old 
Man's  Funeral." 

"  Why  weep  ye  then  for  him,  who,  having  won 
The  bound  of  man's  appointed  years,  at  last, 

Life's  blessings  all  enjoyed,  life's  labors  done, 
Serenely  to  his  final  rest  has  past  ?" 

And  then  he  went  on  and  commented  on  the  remaining 
lines  of  the  poem,  pointing  out  those  which  he  thought 


97 

were  descriptive  of  himself,  and  modestly  disclaiming 
others  that  were  commendatory,  as  not  belonging  to 
him ;  but  which  all  impartial  persons  would  unite  in 
saying  were  singularly  applicable  to  his  character. 

On  the  morning  of  his  death,  when  his  sight  was  very 
dim,  and  his  voice  almost  gone,  he  called  his  children 
around  his  bedside,  and  arranging  them  in  the  order 
of  age,  pointed  to  and  addressed  each  by  name,  and 
said,  "  You  see  I  can  distinguish  you  all ;  and  I  now 
give  you  all  my  parting  blessing.  The  time  is  come. 
Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace, 
according  to  thy  word."  These  were  his  last  words. 
After  this  he  was  heard  to  whisper,  in  a  scarcely 
audible  tone,  the  words  "pretty,  pleasant,  beautiful." 
But  it  cannot  be  known,  whether  he  was  thinking  of 
his  own  situation  as  pleasant,  in  being  thus  surrounded 
at  such  a  time  by  those  he  loved,  or  whether  he 
"  snatched  a  fearful  joy "  in  a  glimpse  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Soon  after  this  he  quietly  breathed  away  his 
soul,  and  departed.  "  And  the  end  of  that  man  was 
peace."  Such  a  death  alone  was  wanting  to  complete 
such  a  life  and  crown  and  seal  such  a  character. — He 
died  on  Friday,  the  16th  day  of  March,  and  I  am  now 
pronouncing  his  eulogy  on  the  last  day  of  his  65th 
year.* 


*  The  disease  of  which  Dr.  Bowditch  died  was  found,  by  a  post 
mortem  examination,  to  be  a  schirrus  in  the  stomach,  a  disease  of  the 
same  type  with  that  which  caused  the  death  of  Napoleon  Buonaparte. 

13 


98 

He  was  buried,  as  he  had  lived,  privately  and  without 
parade  or  show,  on  the  quiet  morning  of  the  last  Sab- 
bath.* His  funeral  was  attended  only  by  his  family  and 
two  others ;  yet,  in  the  person  of  the  Chief  Magistrate, 
I  fancied  I  saw  the  Spirit  of  the  Commonwealth  doing 
homage  to  the  talents  and  virtues  of  her  illustrious  son. 
As  the  hearse  passed  along  through  the  silent  streets, 
bearing  that  precious  dust  to  its  last  resting-place,  the 
snow-flakes  fell  upon  it,  the  fit  emblems  of  his  purity 
and  worth. f  And  many  a  wet  eye,  here,  and  in  the 
place  of  his  nativity,  and  elsewhere,  wept  for  him,  and 
many  a  heart  blessed  his  memory,  and  mourned  that  a 
friend,  and  a  benefactor,  and  a  good  man  had  departed. 

He  has  built  his  own  monument,!  more  enduring  than 


For  four  weeks  previous  to  his  death,  he  could  take  no  solid  food,  and 
hardly  swallowed  any  liquid.  He  suffered,  however,  but  little  from 
hunger,  but  constantly  from  thirst ;  and  the  only  relief  or  refreshment 
he  could  find  was  in  frequently  moistening  his  lips  and  mouth  with  cold 
water.  His  frame  was  consequently  exceedingly  attenuated  and  his 
flesh  wasted  away.  At  intervals  his  sufferings  were  so  intense,  that,  as 
he  said,  the  body  at  times  triumphed  over  the  spirit;  but  it  was  only  for 
a  moment ;  and  the  spirit  resumed  again  and  retained  its  natural 
and  legitimate  sovereignty. 

*  "  Funus,  sine  imaginibus  etpompa,  per  laudes  ac  memoriam  virtutum 
ejus  celebre  fuit."  Tacitus,  Ann.  Lib.  II.  §  73. 

t  His  body  was  deposited  by  the  side  of  his  wife's,  in  his  own  tomb, 
under  Trinity  Church,  in  Summer  Street. 

$  And  yet  I  trust  that  a  material  and  visible  monument  will  ere  long 
be  erected  upon  one  of  the  beautiful  knolls  of  the  Cemetery  at  Mount 
Auburn,  to  remind  the  stranger  and  the  passer-by  of  the  labors,  services 
and  worth  of  this  great  and  good  man.  I  have  an  idea  and  plan  of  my 


99 

marble ;  and  in  his  splendid  scientific  name,  and  in  his 
affectionate  and  delightful  character,  has  bequeathed  to 
his  children  the  richest  legacy.  His  spirit,  I  doubt  not, 


own  on  this  subject,  which  I  will  venture  to  suggest.  Let  the  ship- 
masters and  mates  throughout  the  United  States,  and  all  seamen  who 
have  actually  used  the  "  Practical  Navigator,"  give  one  dollar  each, 
(those  who  please  may  give  more)  towards  the  erection  of  a  monument 
of  white  marble,  in  a  style  of  severe  and  simple  grandeur,  befitting 
his  character ;  and  let  the  amount  be  collected  in  every  seaport  by  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Marine  Society,  and  if  neither  of  these 
exist,  by  some  Insurance  Company,  or  by  the  Collector  of  the  port. 

Let  the  monument  be  a  four-sided  figure.  On  one  of  the  faces  of  the 
die  let  there  be  a  few  geometrical  figures,  a  circle,  a  triangle,  &c. 
around  a  ship  in  the  centre,  under  full  sail,  with  the  American  flag  fly- 
ing at  the  mizzen-peak,  and  the  motto  over  it,  DIRIGO,  /  guide.  On  the  op- 
posite face  let  there  be  two  books,  inscribed  THE  PRACTICAL  NAVIGATOR, 
and  MECANIQUE  CELESTE.  Over  the  former,  let  there  be  a  sextant  and 
compass ;  and  over  the  latter,  the  planet  Saturn,  with  its  rings,  and  the 
constellation  Ursa  Minor  with  the  pole-star.  The  inscription  maybe 
as  follows : — 

[On  the  third  face.] 
NATHANIEL   BOWDITCH, 

THE    AMERICAN    PILOT   AND    MATHEMATICIAN, 
THE     AUTHOR     OF 

THE  PRACTICAL  NAVIGATOR, 

THE    EXPOUNDER   OF 
THE    MECHANISM    OF    THE    HEAVENS. 

[On  the  opposite  face.] 
THE  SEAMEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

IN    GRATEFUL    REMEMBRANCE    OF 

HIS     INESTIMABLE     SERVICES, 

RAISE    THIS    MONUMENT    TO 
THEIR    GUIDE    AND    BENEFACTOR. 


100 

and  her  spirit,  will  still  continue  to  influence  and  guide 
them.  And  let  them  remember  the  sentiment  of  the 
Roman  annalist,  that  "  the  true  way  of  testifying  our 
respect  and  love  for  the  departed  is  not  to  follow  them 
with  an  unavailing  grief,  but  to  remember  their  wishes 
and  fulfil  their  injunctions."*  They  have  the  satisfaction 
of  reflecting  that  their  parent  lived  a  happy,  an  honorable, 
and  a  useful  life.  The  sailor  traverses  the  sea  more 
safely  by  means  of  his  labors,  and  the  widow's  and  the 
orphan's  treasure  is  more  securely  guarded  in  conse- 
quence of  his  care.  He  was  the  Great  Pilot  who  steered 
all  our  ships  over  the  ocean ;  and  though  dead,  he  yet 
liveth,  and  speaketh,  and  acteth,  in  the  recorded  wisdom 
of  his  invaluable  book.  The  world  has  been  the  wiser 
and  the  happier  that  he  has  lived  in  it.t 


*  "  Non  hoc  prsecipuum  amicorum  raunus  est,  prosequi  defunctum 
ignavo  questu ;  sed  quse  voluerit  meminisse,  quse  mandaverit  exequi."-— 
Tacitus,  Ann.  Lib.  II.  §  71. 

f  As  soon  as  the  news  of  Dr.  Bowditch's  death  reached  Baltimore,  the 
flags  of  all  the  vessels  were  displayed  at  half-mast ;  and  the  midship- 
men attached  to  the  United  States  Naval  School  at  Gosport,  Va.,  on 
hearing  of  the  same  event,  resolved,  as  a  testimony  of  respect,  to  wear 
crape  on  the  left  arm  for  thirty  days.  "Why  has  not  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  ordered  the  flags  of  our  national  ships  to  be  lowered  in  honor  of 
the  Great  Pilot  ? 

t  No  one  can  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  remarkable  similarity  between 
the  circumstances  in  the  life,  death  and  character  of  Dr.  Bowditch  and 
those  of  Agricola,  as  described  by  Tacitus. 

"  Finis  vitae  ejus  nobis  luctuosus,  amicis  tristis,  extraneis  etiam  igno- 
tisque  non  sine  cura  fuit.  Vulgus  quoque,  et  hie  aliud  agens  populus,  et 
per  fora  et  circulos  locuti  sunt ;  nee  quisquam,  audita  morte  Agricolse,  aut 


101 

He  has  left  an  example,  as  I  intimated  in  the  begin- 
ning of  this  Discourse,  full  of  instruction  and  encourage- 
ment to  the  young,  and  especially  to  those  among  them 
who  are  struggling  with  poverty  and  difficulties.  He 
has  shown  them  that  poverty  is  no  dishonor,  and  need 
be  no  hindrance;  that  the  greatest  obstacles  may  be 
surmounted  by  persevering  industry  and  an  indomitable 
will.  He  has  shown  them  to  what  heights  of  greatness 
and  glory  they  may  ascend  by  truth,  temperance,  and 
toil.  He  has  proved  to  them  that  fame  need  not  be 
sought  for  solely  in  political  life;  although  that  is  a 
worthy  field,  and  the  country  must  be  served, — and 
served,  too,  not  by  the  worst,  but  by  the  best  men, — not 
by  the  factious,  the  ignorant,  the  scheming,  but  by  the 
wisest,  the  most  enlightened,  the  best  accomplished  that 
we  have  among  us ;  by  men  who  dare  to  tell  the  peo- 
ple of  their  duties  as  well  as  of  their  rights ;  and  who, 
instead  of  meanly  flattering  them  for  their  votes,  will 
boldly  speak  to  them  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness, 
and  point  out  to  them  their  errors  and  faults. 

Isetatus  est,  aut  statim  oblitus.  Quod  si  habitum  quoque  ejus  poster! 
noscere  velint,  decentior  quam  sublimior  fuit :  nihil  metus  in  vultu :  gratia 
oris  supererat :  bonum  virum  facile  crederes,  magnum  libenter.  Et  ipse 
quidem,  quamquam  medio  in  spatio  integrae  setatis  ereptus,  quantum  ad 
gloriam,  longissimum  sevum  peregit.  Quippe  et  vera  bona,  quse  in  vir- 
tutibus  sita  sunt,  impleverat.  Tu  verd  felix,  Agricola,  non  vitae  tantum 
claritate,  sed  etiam  opportunitate  mortis :  ut  perhibent  qui  interfuerunt 
novissimis  sermonibus  tuis,  constans  et  libens  fatum  excepisti. 

"  Si  quis  piorum  manibus  locus ;  si,  ut  sapientibus  placet,  non  cum 
corpore  exstinguuntur  magnse  animse ;  placide  quiescas,  nosque,  domum 


102 

Above  all,  Dr.  Bowditch  has  left  us  a  most  glorious 
and  precious  legacy  in  his  example  of  integrity,  love  of 
truth,  moral  courage,  and  independence.  He  has 
taught  the  young  men  here,  and  the  world  over,  that 
there  is  nothing  so  grand  and  beautiful  as  moral  prin- 
ciple, nothing  so  sublime  as  adherence  to  truth,  and 
right,  and  duty,  through  good  report  and  through  evil 
report.  He  has,  indeed,  blessed  the  world  greatly  by 
his  science  and  his  practical  wisdom;  but  quite  as 
much,  nay,  far  more,  I  think,  by  his  upright  and  manly 
character.  He  has  taught  mankind  that  reverence  for 
duty,  and  trust  in  Providence,  and  submission  to  His 
will,  and  faith  in  the  rectitude  of  all  His  appointments, 
and  a  filial  reliance  upon  His  love,  are  sentiments  not 
unworthy  nor  unbecoming  the.  greatest  philosopher. 


tuam,  ab  infirmo  desiderio  et  muliebribus  lamentis  ad  contemplationem 
virtutum  tuarum  voces,  quas  neque  lugeri  neque  plangi  fas  est :  admira- 
tione  te  potius  quam  temporalibus  laudibus,  et,  si  natura  suppeditet,  se- 
mulatione  decoremus.  Is  verus  honos,  ea  conjunctissimi  cujusque  pie- 
tas.  Id  filiis  quoque  prseceperim,  sic  patris  memoriam  venerari,  ut  om- 
nia  facta  dictaque  ejus  secum  revolvant,  famamque  ac  figuram  animi 
magis  quam  corporis  coraplectantur.  Non  quia  intercedendum  putem 
imaginibus,  quse  marmore  aut  sere  finguntur :  sed  ut  vultus  hominum,  ita 
simulacra  vultus  imbecilla  ac  mortalia  sunt;  forma  mentis  seterna,  quam 
tenere  et  exprimere,  non  per  alienam  materiam  et  artem,  sed  tuis  ipse 
moribus  possis.  Quidquid  ex  Agricola  amavirmis,  quidquid  mirati  su- 
mus,  manet  mansurumque  est  in  animis  hominum,  in  seternitate  tem- 
porum,  fama  rerum.  Nam  multos  veterum,  velut  inglorios  et  ignobi- 
les,  oblivio  obruet.  Agricola,  posteritati  narratus  et  traditus,  superstes 
erit." 


103 

For  this  we  honor  and  eulogize  him ;  not  for  wealth, 
title,  fortune,  those  miserable  outsides  and  trappings  of 
humanity,  but  for  the  qualities  of  the  inner  man,  which 
still  live,  and  will  live  for  ever.  He  studied  the  stars  on 
the  earth — may  he  not  now  be  tracking  their  courses 
through  the  heavens  1  Long  ere  this,  perhaps,  he 
knows  all  the  beauties  and  the  mysteries  of  their  tan- 
gled mazes — has  examined  the  rings  of  Saturn  and  the 
belts  of  Jupiter,  traversed  the  milky  way,  and  chased 
the  comet  through  infinity.  Methinks  I  hear  his  depart- 
ing and  ascending  spirit  exclaiming,  as  it  wings  its  flight 
upwards,  in  the  language  of  the  beautiful  hymn: — 

"  Ye  golden  lamps  of  heaven  !  farewell, 

With  all  your  feeble  light : 
Farewell,  thou  ever-changing  moon, 

Pale  empress  of  the  night ! 

And  thou,  refulgent  orb  of  day ! 

In  brighter  flames  arrayed, 
My  soul,  which  springs  beyond  thy  sphere, 

No  more  demands  thine  aid. 

Ye  stars  are  but  the  shining  dust 

Of  my  divine  abode, 
The  pavement  of  those  heavenly  courts, 

Where  I  shall  reign  with  God. 

The  Father  of  eternal  light 

Shall  there  his  beams  display ; 
Nor  shall  one  moment's  darkness  mix 

With  that  unvaried  day. 

"Many  shall  commend  his  understanding;  and  so 


104 

long  as  the  world  endureth,  it  shall  not  be  blotted  out. 
His  memorial  shall  not  depart  away,  and  his  name  shall 
live  from  generation  to  generation." 


See  page  20. 


APPENDIX. 


Some  idea  of  the  sensation  produced  in  this  community  by  the 
decease  of  Dr.  BOWDITCH,  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  pro- 
ceedings of  various  public  bodies,  with  which  he  was  connected. 

THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY. 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  held  March  20th,  1838,  the  following  Resolves  were 
presented  by  his  Excellency  Edward  Everett,  and  adopted  unani- 
mously by  the  Fellows  of  the  Academy : — 

Whereas  it  has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  remove  from  this 
life  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  President  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  Fellows  of  the  Academy,  at  a  special 
meeting  called  for  the  purpose  of  taking  due  notice  of  this  melan- 
choly event,  unanimously  adopt  the  following  resolutions,  expres- 
sive of  their  feelings  on  this  sorrowful  occasion : — 

Resolved,  That  the  Fellows  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  entertain  the  liveliest  sense  of  the  exalted  talents 
and  extraordinary  attainments  of  their  late  President,  who  stood 
preeminent  among  the  men  of  science  in  the  United  States,  and 
who,  by  universal  consent,  has  long  been  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  mathematicians  and  astronomers  of  the  age ; 
that  we  consider  his  reputation  as  one  of  the  most  precious  trea- 
sures of  our  common  country ;  that  we  deeply  deplore  his  loss  in 
the  fullness  of  his  intellectual  power ;  and  that  we  esteem  it  our 
sacred  duty  to  cherish  his  memory. 

Resolved,  That  in  addition  to  the  loss  which  they  have  sustained, 
as  members  of  this  scientific  body,  in  being  deprived  of  their  dis- 
tinguished associate  and  head,  whose  name  has  for  many  years 
conferred  honor  on  their  institution,  and  whose  communications 

14 


106 


are  among  the  most  valuable  contents  of  the  volumes  of  the 
Academy's  Memoirs,  the  Fellows  of  the  Academy,  as  members  of 
the  community,  lament  the  loss  of  a  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 
whose  services  were  of  the  highest  value  in  the  active  walks  of 
life; — whose  entire  influence  was  given  to  the  cause  of  good 
principles; — whose  life  was  a  uniform  exhibition  of  the  loftiest 
virtues ; — and  who,  with  a  firmness  and  energy  which  nothing 
could  shake  or  subdue,  devoted  himself  to  the  most  arduous  and 
important  duties,  and  made  the  profoundest  researches  of  science 
subservient  to  the  practical  business  of  life. 

Resolved,  That  the  Fellows  of  the  Academy  deeply  sympathize 
with  the  family  of  their  late  President  in  the  loss  of  a  faithful, 
affectionate,  and  revered  parent,  and  that  the  officers  of  the 
Academy  be  requested  to  address  to  them  a  letter  of  respectful 
condolence. 

Resolved,  That  the  officers  of  the  Academy  be  a  committee  to 
procure  a  bust  in  marble  of  the  late  President,  to  be  placed  in  the 
hall  of  the  Academy,  and  to  adopt  and  carry  into  execution  such 
other  measures  as  they  may  deem  expedient,  in  honor  of  the 
memory  of  one,  who  among  living  men  of  science  has  left  few 
equals. 

Resolved,  That  an  attested  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  trans- 
mitted by  the  Corresponding  Secretary  to  the  family  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  to  the  various  learned  Societies  in  Europe  and  America 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  that  they  be  furnished  for  publi- 
cation in  the  papers  of  the  city. 

A  true  copy  of  record. — Attest, 

DANIEL  TREADWELL, 

Recording  Secretary. 

Boston,  March  21,  1838. 


HARVARD  UNIVERSITY. 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard 
College,  held  on  the  20th  of  March,  1838,  the  following  preamble 
and  votes  were  unanimously  adopted  : — 

This  Board  having  been  informed  of  the  death,  on  the  16th 


107 

instant,  of  the  Hon.  NATHANIEL   BOWDITCH,  LL.  D.,  a  Fellow  of 
this  College,  it  was  thereupon  unanimously 

Voted,  That  this  Corporation,  in  common  with  the  friends  of 
science  and  religion,  in  this  and  every  land,  in  which  his  attain-  • 
ments  and  virtues  were  known,  lament  the  loss  the  world  has  sus- 
tained by  the  death  of  one,  not  more  eminent  as.  a  philosopher, 
than  honored  as  a  citizen,  and  beloved  as  a  man  ;  who  fulfilled  the 
duties  of  a  public  and  private  life  with  an  assiduity,  an  exactness, 
a  fidelity  and  a  felicity  seldom  equalled,  and  never  excelled ;  and 
who,  by  combining  great  simplicity  of  manners  and  singleness  of 
purpose,  with  an  integrity,  through  life,  without  blemish  and  with- 
out stain,  so  acquired  the  confidence  of  his  contemporaries,  as  to 
be  regarded  as  the  pillar  and  pride  of  every  Society  of  which  he 
was  an  active  member ;  the  effects  of  which  never  failed  to  be 
seen  and  acknowledged  in  its  prosperity  and  success. 

This  Corporation,  in  common  with  all  others  which  have  been 
blessed  with  his  counsels  and  labors,  deem  it  peculiarly  their  duty 
distinctly  and  gratefully  to  acknowledge  the  benefits  Harvard 
College  has  derived  from  the  extraordinary  endowments  he  pos- 
sessed, and  by  which,  in  the  exercise  of  his  characteristic  zeal, 
intelligence  and  faithfulness,  he  ever  sustained  and  advanced  al 
its  interests. 

Voted,  That  the  President  be  requested  to  communicate  this 
vote  to  the  family  of  Dr.  Bowditch. 

True  extract  from  the  records. — Attest, 

(Signed)  JAMES  WALKER, 

Secretary  of  the  Corporation. 


YALE  COLLEGE. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  President,  Professors  and  Tutors  of  Yale 
College,  the  following  resolutions  were  adopted : — 

Resolved,  That  this  faculty  have  heard,  with  deep  concern,  of 
the  death  of  the  Hon.  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  late  of  Boston ;  and 
that  this  painful  jevent  has  bereaved  not  only  his  family,  but  his 
country  and  mankind  ;  especially  as  he  was  cut  off  in  the  vigor  of 
his  faculties,  in  the  maturity  of  his  fame,  and  in  the  full  course  of 
his  usefulness. 


108 

Resolved,  That  we  respectfully  and  feelingly  sympathize  with 
the  children  of  the  illustrious  deceased,  whose  memory,  justly  dear 
to  the  country  which  he  honored,  is  cherished  still  more  affection- 
ately by  those  who  were  so  happy  as  to  call  him  their  father. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  the  above  resolutions  be  transmitted 
to  the  family  of  the  late  Dr.  Bowditch,  and  that  the  President  of 
the  College  be  requested  to  affix  to  it  his  signature. 

In  behalf  of  the  Faculty, 
(Signed)  JEREMIAH  DAY. 


THE  BOSTON  ATHEN^UM. 

At  the  stated  Quarterly  Meeting  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Boston 
Athenaeum,  held  April  9th,  1838,  the  following  paper  was  read, 
accepted,  and  ordered  to  be  recorded  : — 

Since  our  last  meeting,  our  country  has  been  called  to  mourn 
the  death  of  one  of  its  most  distinguished  men,  the  late  NATHANIEL 
BOWDITCH. 

The  connection  of  the  deceased  with  the  Boston  Athenaeum  was 
so  beneficial  to  this  institution,  that  the  Trustees  are  urged  alike 
by  official  duty  and  by  private  feeling  to  express  their  sense  of  his 
loss.  This  institution  is  deeply  indebted  to  the  late  Dr.  Bowditch 
for  the  zeal  with  which  he  labored  to  advance  its  interests.  Find- 
ing it  weak,  he  determined,  in  connection  with  several  other  public- 
spirited  individuals,  to  make  it  prosper.  Their  appeals  to  the  mu- 
nificence of  our  wealthy  citizens  were  successful,  and  the  resources 
of  the  Athenaeum  were  greatly  increased.  For  several  years  Dr. 
Bowditch,  continuing  a  member  of  this  Board,  aided  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  funds  which  he  had  done  so  much  to  procure,  and  the 
high  rank  which  the  scientific  portion  of  our  library  enjoys  among 
similar  institutions  in  the  United  States,  is  in  a  great  measure 
owing  to  his  judgment  and  exertions. 

But  Dr.  Bowditch  has  far  higher  claims  to  notice.  He  stood  at 
the  head  of  the  scientific  men  of  this  country,  ar\d  no  man  living 
has  contributed  more  to  his  country's  reputation.  His  fame  is  of 
the  most  durable  kind,  resting  on  the  union  of  the  highest  genius 
with  the  most  practical  talent,  and  the  application  of  both  to  the 


109 

good  of  his  fellow-men.  Every  American  ship  crosses  the  ocean 
more  safely  for  his  labors,  and  the  most  eminent  mathematicians 
of  Europe  have  acknowledged  him  their  equal  in  the  highest  walks 
of  their  science.  His  last  great  work  ranks  with  -the  noblest  pro- 
ductions of  our  age. 

But  it  is  not  merely  the  benefactor  of  this  institution,  and  the  il- 
lustrious mathematician  whose  labors  have  given  safety  to  com- 
merce and  reputation  to  his  country,  whom  we  lament.  It  is  one 
whose  whole  life  was  directed  to  good  ends,  who  combined  the 
greatest  energy  with  the  kindest  feelings,  who  was  the  friend  of 
every  good  man  and  every  good  undertaking,  the  enemy  of  op- 
pression, the  patron  of  merit,  the  warm-hearted  champion  of  truth 
and  virtue.  It  is  the  companion,  whose  simple  manners  and 
amiable  disposition  put  every  one  at  ease  in  his  presence,  notwith- 
standing the  respect  which  his  genius  inspired  ;  and  who  could 
turn,  apparently  without  effort,  from  the  profoundest  investigations, 
to  take  his  part  with  the  light-heartedness  of  a  child  in  the  mirth  of 
the  social  circle.  His  heart  was  as  tender  as  his  intellect  was 
powerful.  His  family  found  him  as  affectionate  as  he  was  wise  ; 
he  was  equally  their  delight  and  their  pride.  They  could  have  no 
richer  inheritance  than  his  character,  and  nothing  but  such  a 
character  could  afford  them  consolation  for  such  a  loss. 

Filled  with  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  what  is  here  stated,  the 
Trustees  desire  to  express  it.  Therefore, 

Voted,  That  the  Trustees  tender  their  sincere  sympathy  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  for  the  loss  of  one  as  estimable  in  his  pri- 
vate as  in  his  public  relations  ;  and  while  they  know  that  no  ade- 
quate consolation  can  be  afforded  under  such  a  calamity,  they 
trust  that  some  may  be  felt  in  the  contemplation  of  a  life  so  glo- 
riously spent,  and  which  has  left  such  enduring  monuments  of  ex- 
cellence in  every  department,  whether  of  science  or  of  practical 
utility,  to  which  it  has  been  devoted. 

Voted,  That  the  Secretary  be  instructed  to  present  a  copy  of 
the  foregoing  preamble  and  resolutions  to  the  family  of  the  de- 
ceased. 

A  true  copy  from  the  records. — Attest, 

WILLIAM  T.  ANDREWS,  Secretary. 


110 


THE  LIFE  OFFICE. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Control  of  the  Massachusetts 
Hospital  Life  Insurance  Company,  held  at  the  office  of  said  Com- 
pany, on  the  19th  day  of  March,  1838,  convened  in  consequence 
of  the  death  of  the  Hon.  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  a  Director,  and 
the  Actuary  of  the  Company,  the  following  votes  were  unani- 
mously adopted  : — 

Voted,  That  this  Board  have  received,  with  great  grief,  the  in- 
telligence  of  the  death  of  their  late  respected  and  beloved  asso- 
ciate, Nathaniel  Bowditch.  They  feel  that  in  him  they  individually 
have  lost  a  friend,  the  company  an  officer  whose  services  were 
invaluable,  and  the  country  her  citizen  most  eminent  in  science. 
For  nearly  fifteen  years  his  extraordinary  powers  and  attainments 
have  been  successfully  devoted  to  the  service  of  this  Company. 
He  took  an  efficient  part  in  laying  the  foundation  of  the  Institution. 
The  business  for  which  the  Corporation  was  created,  was  novel  in 
New  England  ;  at  its  commencement,  he  accepted  the  responsible 
office  of  Actuary,  which  he  continued  to  hold  till  his  death.  On 
this  officer,  more  than  any  other  individual,  was  devolved  the  ar- 
duous task  of  devising  and  organizing  a  system  for  conducting  the 
affairs  of  the  Corporation  ;  and  the  Board  think  it  not  too  much  to 
say,  that  it  is  to  the  clearness  and  simplicity  of  the  regulations 
then  devised  and  adopted,  and  the  intelligence,  fidelity,  and 
inflexible  resolution  with  which  they  were  adhered  to  and  executed 
by  the  Actuary,  that  the  Company  are  mainly  indebted  for  their 
success,  and  the  public  confidence  they  now  enjoy.  In  reviewing 
the  long  connexion  of  this  lamented  officer  with  the  affairs  of  the 
Institution,  they  cannot  forbear  to  express  their  conviction,  that  his 
services  have  preeminently  contributed  to  its  present  stability  and 
prosperity.  This  is  not  a  new  opinion  of  the  Board.  The  annual 
reports  of  Committees,  accepted  by  this  Board  in  the  life-time  of 
the  Actuary,  bear  witness  to  the  high  estimation  in  which  they  at 
all  times  held  his  services ;  and  now  that  his  work  is  ended,  they 
perform  a  pleasing,  though  melancholy  duty,  in  repeating  and 
confirming  it. 

Voted,  That  while  the  members  of  this  Board  deeply  lament 


Ill 

the  death  of  their  distinguished  associate,  they  are  not  unmindful 
that  there  are  others  by  whom  it  will  be  more  acutely  felt.  To  his 
distressed  family  they  respectfully  offer  their  warmest  sympathy 
in  this  severe  affliction,  with  which  a  wise  and  merciful  Providence 
has  seen  fit  to  visit  them.  They  well  know  that  there  is  no  adequate 
earthly  consolation  for  the  loss  of  such  a  parent ;  but  they  hope 
some  alleviation  may  be  found  in  the  reflection  that  he  lived  long 
enough  to  perform  all  the  duties  of  a  long  life,  although  not  per- 
mitted to  attain  old  age ;  that  he  has  left  them  a  bright  example, 
and  a  name  that  will  be  known  and  honored  throughout  the  world, 
so  long  as  virtue  and  science  shall  be  held  in  reverence. 

Voted,  That  the  Secretary  be  requested  to  communicate  a  copy 
of  the  above  Votes  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

True  copy  from  the  records. — Attest, 

MOSES  L.  HALE,  Secretary. 


THE  CITY  OF  SALEM. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  City  Council  of  Salem,  on  Thursday,  March 
29th,  the  following  Resolutions  were  unanimously  passed  in  both 
branches  : — 

Resolved,  That  the  City  Council  of  the  City  of  Salem  have 
received  with  deep  sorrow  the  intelligence  of  the  decease  of  the 
Hon.  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  LL.  D.,  of  Boston,  for  many  years  a 
respected  and  honored  resident  of  this  his  native  place. 

Resolved,  That  the  City  Council  and  the  people  of  the  City  of 
Salem  will  ever  cherish  in  grateful  respect  the  memory  of  a 
townsman  of  singular  simplicity,  integrity,  purity  and  benevolence 
of  character,  attaining  from  humble  life,  by  his  intellectual 
and  moral  energy,  the  highest  honors  of  science,  and  the  respect 
and  gratitude  of  the  community,  as  a  public  benefactor. 

Resolved,  That  while  the  City  Council  acknowledge,  with  grate- 
ful pride,  the  honor  reflected  from  his  elevated  character  and  pure 
fame  upon  the  place  of  his  birth,  where  his  mind  and  habits  were 
formed,  and  among  whose  citizens  the  largest  part  of  his  life  was 
passed,  and  while  they  sympathize  with  his  family  and  the  whole 


112 

community  in  a  loss  so  deeply  felt  by  all  the  friends  of  learning, 
benevolence,  and  truth,  they  earnestly  commend  to  the  admiration 
and  imitation  of  all,  especially  the  young  men  of  his  native  place ? 
the  noble  example  of  active  and  patient  industry,  unconquerable 
perseverance,  unbending  uprightness  and  faithfulness  in  all  the  re- 
lations of  life,  and  ardent  love  and  constant  pursuit  of  knowledge 
and  truth,  which  were  the  foundations  of  a  character  of  such 
honorable  distinction  and  rare  usefulness. 

Resolved,  That  the  people  of  Salem  have  ever  retained  a  deep 
interest  in  the  happiness  and  fame  of  their  late  lamented  towns- 
man, Dr.  Bowditch,  since  he  reluctantly  left  his  native  place  for  a 
sphere  of  more  extensive  usefulness  in  the  metropolis  of  our  Com- 
monwealth ;  and  they  now  receive  and  acknowledge  with  grateful 
sensibility  the  evidence  of  his  generous  remembrance  of  his  first 
home  in  the  last  days  of  his  life,  contained  in  his  liberal  bequests 
to  three  of  the  most  useful  and  important  Institutions  of  our  City. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  suitable  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory 
of  Dr.  Bowditch,  a  public  discourse  upon  his  life  and  character,  be 
delivered  in  this  City,  and  that  a  Committee  be  appointed  with  au- 
thority to  make  all  the  necessary  arrangements  to  carry  this  reso- 
lution into  effect.* 

Resolved,  That  the  Mayor  be  requested  to  transmit  an  attested 
copy  of  these  Resolutions  to  the  family  of  the  late  Dr.  Bowditch. 


SHIPMASTERS  AND  SEAMEN. 

At  a  meeting  of  Shipmasters,  Supercargoes,  Officers,  and  Sea- 
men, held  at  the  Common  Council  Room,  in  Boston,  on  the  3d 
of  April,  Capt.  Winslow  Lewis  was  chosen  Chairman,  and  Capt. 
James  W.  Sever  Secretary. 

The  following  Preamble  and  Resolutions  were  adopted ; — 
Whereas,  in  the  death  of  Dr.  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  we  feel 


*  [The  city  authorities  of  Salem  have  since  appointed  the  Honorable  DANIEL 
APPLETON  WHITE  to  deliver  the  Eulogy  on  their  illustrious  son.  They 
could  not  have  selected  a  person  better  qualified  than  Judge  White,  by  his 
talents,  varied  acquirements,  and  personal  intimacy  with  the  deceased,  to  do 
justice  to  the  subject.] 


113 

that  the  World  has  to  deplore  the  loss  of  a  distinguished  Philoso- 
pher, our  Country  a  most  honorable  and  high-minded  Citizen,  and 
the  Maritime  Profession  a  Guide,  Preceptor  and  Friend; — 

Resolved,  That  a  Committee  of  seven  be  appointed  to  act  in 
concurrence  with  such  Societies  as  were  honored  in  bearing  upon 
their  rolls  the  name  of  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  and  that  any  mode  that 
shall  be  adopted  to  perpetuate  the  respect  and  regard  with  which 
we  cherish  his  memory,  shall  have  our  whole  and  hearty  aid. 

Resolved,  That  all  the  members  of  the  Nautical  Profession,  of 
this  and  of  the  neighboring  ports,  be  respectfully  invited  to  attend 
an  adjourned  meeting,  to  be  called  by  the  officers  of  this  meeting, 
to  join  with  us  in  such  measures  as  may  then  be  adopted. 

Voted,  That  the  following  gentlemen  form  the  Committee,  viz. 
Captains  Daniel  C.  Bacon,  William  Sturgis,  Larkin  Turner, 
Thomas  B.  Curtis,  Winslow  Lewis,  Henry  Oxnard,  Caleb  Curtis, 
Samuel  Quincy,  James  W.  Sever. 

WINSLOW  LEWIS,  Chairman. 

JAMES  W.  SEVER,  Secretary. 


THE  EAST  INDIA  MARINE  SOCIETY. 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  East  India  Marine  Society,  called 
for  the  purpose  of  noticing  the  decease  and  munificent  bequest  of 
the  Hon.  NATHANIEL  BOWDITCH,  late  member  and  former  Presi- 
dent of  said  Society,  the  following  Resolutions  were  unanimously 
adopted : — 

Resolved,  That  the  East  India  Marine  Society  have  received 
with  deep  sorrow  and  regret  the  afflicting  intelligence  of  the  death 
of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch ;  by  which  they  have  sustained  the  loss 
of  one  of  their  most  honored,  useful  and  important  members ;  to 
whose  eminent  services  and  the  great  interest  he  has  manifested 
during  the  long  period  of  his  connexion  with  them,  evinced  at  the 
close  of  his  memorable  life  by  a  most  liberal  bequest,  their  Institu- 
tion is  indebted  for  much  of  the  usefulness  and  celebrity  to  v/hich 
it  has  attained  ;  and  the  surviving  members  of  the  Society  will  ever 
hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the  services  and  liberality  of  one 

15 


114 

with  whom  they  consider  it  the  highest  honor  to  have  been  asso- 
ciated. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  Society  entertain  the  highest 
respect  for  the  memory  of  the  deceased  ;  and  while  they  acknow- 
ledge, with  pride  and  gratitude,  the  inestimable  benefits  conferred 
upon  them  in  their  peculiar  pursuits  by  the  indefatigable  zeal  with 
which  he  has  devoted  the  powers  of  his  great  mind  to  bring  into 
easy  and  practical  use  the  principles  of  Astronomy,  applicable  to 
Navigation,  they,  in  common  with  the  whole  country  and  scientific 
world,  deeply  deplore  his  loss,  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness,  as  a 
public  calamity. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  Society  feel  themselves 
under  obligations  to  the  deceased,  which  it  is  difficult  for  them  to 
express,  for  his  elucidating  and  simplifying  the  principles  of  Navi- 
gation, whereby  their  path  over  the  ocean  has  been  rendered  plain 
and  easy  ;  and  that  he  has,  in  his  Practical  Navigator,  been  inde- 
fatigable ,  in  his  endeavors  to  raise  and  elevate  the  standard  of 
Nautical  Science  among  seamen. 

Resolved,  That  this  Society  will  receive  with  gratitude  the 
liberal  legacy  bequeathed  by  the  last  Will  of  their  late  lamented 
member  and  former  President,  in  token  of  his  regard  and  deep 
interest  in  them,  and  that  it  shall  be  appropriated  for  the  promotion 
of  the  general  objects  of  the  Institution,  as  provided  by  the  said 
Will. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  Society,  while  they  most 
sincerely  sympathize  with  the  afflicted  family  of  the  deceased 
under  their  severe  bereavement,  derive  some  alleviation  from  the 
recollection  that  he  has  left  behind  him  the  imperishable  monument 
of  a  life  devoted  to  the  great  interests  of  society,  and  affording  an 
example  of  extraordinary  talents,  untiring  industry  and  persever- 
ance, combined  with  extreme  modesty  and  simplicity  of  manners. 

Resolved,  That  the  Corresponding  Secretary  be  requested  to 
transmit  an  attested  copy  of  these  Resolutions  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased,  and  that  they  be  furnished  for  publication  in  the  papers 
of  this  city. 

A  true  copy  from  the  records. — Attest, 

NATHANIEL  GRIFFIN, 

Recording  Secretary. 


115 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES. 

In  speaking,  on  page  42,  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Parsons  as  an 
eminent  mathematician,  it  should  have  been  stated,  in  a  note,  that 
Dr.  Bowditch  says  (Practical  Navigator,  p.  243,  stereotype  edition), 
"  This  method  [of  finding  the  true  distance  of  the  moon  from  the 
sun,  a  planet,  or  a  star,]  was  invented  by  the  author  of  this  work, 
who  also  improved  WitchelPs  method,  and  'reduced  considerably 
the  number  of  cases.  These  improvements  were  made  in  conse- 
quence of  a  suggestion  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Parsons,  a  gentle- 
man eminently  distinguished  for  his  mathematical  acquirements, 
who  had  somewhat  simplified  WitchelPs  process." 


Dr.  Bowditch  was  admitted  a  member  of  the  American  Academy 
on  the  28th  of  May,  1799,  and  was  chosen  its  President  in  1829, 
and  held  this  office  till  his  decease.  He  received  his  degree  of 
LL.  D.  from  Harvard  University  at  the  Commencement  in  1816. 
He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London  on  the 
12th  of  March,  1818,  and  his  diploma,  on  parchment,  now  before 
me,  is  signed,  among  other  names,  by  those  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
President,  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  Sir  Davies  Gilbert,  Sir  Everard 
Home,  Dr.  William  Thomas  Brande,  Dr.  William  H.  Wollaston, 
Dr.  Thomas  Young,  and  John  Pond,  Astronomer  Royal. 


Since  the  page  (96)  containing  the  beautiful  lines  of  Hafiz,  was 
struck  off,  I  have  met  in  J.  D.  Carlyle's  "  Specimens  of  Arabian  Po- 
etry," p.  64  (London,  1810),  a  different  version  of  the  same  senti- 
ment. Carlyle  says,  "  The  Persian  verses  seem  to  be  a  translation 
from  our  Arabian  author."  They  are  addressed  "  To  a  Friend 
upon  his  Birth-Day." 

"  When  born,  in  tears  we  saw  thee  drown'd, 
While  thine  assembled  friends  around, 

With  smiles  their  joy  confest ;  •  ^ 

So  live,  that  at  thy  parting  hour, 
They  may  the  flood  of  sorrow  pour, 
And  thou  in  smiles  be  drest." 


116 


DR.  BOWDITCH'S  SCIENTIFIC  PAPERS. 

The  following  is  a  complete  and  accurate  list  of  the  Papers  con- 
tributed by  Dr.  Bowditch  to  the  Memoirs  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  It  will  serve  to  show  the  ex- 
tent of  his  observations  and  the  variety  of  his  inquiries. 

VOL.  II. 

New  Method  of  Working  a  Lunar  Observation. 

VOL.  III. 

Observations  on  the  Comet  of  1807. 

Observations  on  the  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Sun,  June  16,  1806, 
made  at  Salem. 

Addition  to  the  Memoir  on  the  Solar  Eclipse  of  June  16,  1806. 

Application  of  Napier's  Rule  for  solving  the  cases  of  right 
angled  spheric  trigonometry  to  several  cases  of  oblique-angled 
spheric  trigonometry. 

An  estimate  of  the  height,  direction,  velocity  and  magnitude  of  the 
Meteor  that  exploded  over  Weston,  in  Connecticut,  Dec.  14,  1807. 

On  the  Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  Sept.  17,  1811,  with  the  longitudes 
of  several  places  in  this  country,  deduced  from  all  the  observations 
of  the  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  and  transits  of  Mercury  and  Venus,  that 
have  been  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Societies  of 
Paris  and  London,  the  Philosophical  Society  held  at  Philadelphia, 
and  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

Elements  of  the  orbit  of  the  Comet  of  1811. 

An  estimate  of  the  height  of  the  White  Hills  in  New  Hampshire. 

On  the  variation  of  the  Magnetic  Needle. 

On  the  motion  of  a  pendulum  suspended  from  two  points. 

A  demonstration  of  the  rule  for 'finding  the  place  of  a  Meteor, 
in  the  second  problem,  page  218  of  this  volume. 

VOL.  IV. 

On  a  mistake  which  exists  in  the  solar  tables  of  Mayer,  La 
Lande,  and  Zach. 

On  the  calculation  of  the  oblateness  of  the  earth,  by  means  of 
the  observed  lengths  of  a  pendulum  in  different  latitudes,  accord- 


117 

ing  to  the  method  given  by  La  Place  in  the  second  volume  of  his 
"  Mecanique  Celeste,"  with  remarks  on  other  parts  of  the  same 
work,  relating  to  the  figure  of  the  earth. 

Method  of  correcting  the  apparent  distance  of  the  Moon  from 
the  Sun,  or  a  Star,  for  the  effects  of  Parallax  and  Refraction. 

On  the  method  of  computing  the  Dip  of  the  Magnetic  Needle 
in  different  latitudes,  according  to  the  theory  of  Mr.  Biot. 

Remarks  on  the  methods  of  correcting  the  elements  of  the  orbit 
of  a  comet  in  Newton's  "  Principia,"  and  in  La  Place's  "  Me- 
canique Celeste." 

Remarks  on  the  usual  Demonstration  of  the  permanency  of  the 
solar  system,  with  respect  to  the  Eccentricities  and  Inclinations  of 
the  orbits  of  the  Planets. 

Remarks  on  Dr.  Stewart's  formula,  for  computing  the  motion 
of  the  Moon's  Apsides,  as  given  in  the  Supplement  to  the  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica. 

On  the  Meteor  which  passed  over  Wilmington  in  the  State  of 
Delaware,  Nov.  21,  1819. 

Occultation  of  Spica  by  the  Moon,  observed  at  Salem. 

On  a  mistake  which  exists  in  the  calculation  of  Mr.  Poisson  rela- 
tive to  the  distribution  of  the  electrical  matter  upon  the  surfaces  of 
two  globes,  in  vol.  12  of  the  "  Memoires  de  la  classe  des  sciences 
mathematiques  et  physiques  de  1'  Institut  Imperial  de  France." 

Elements  of  the  Comet  of  1819. 


Dr.  Bowditch  was  also  the  author  of  the  article  on  Modern  As- 
tronomy, in  the  North  American  Review,  vol.  XX.  pp.  309-366. 
In  the  Monthly  Anthology,  Vol  IV.  p.  653,  there  is  a  brief  account 
of  the  Comet  of  1806,  drawn  up  by  him  at  the  request  of  the 
Editors.  It  is  believed  that  this  is  the  whole  amount  of  his  contri- 
butions to  our  periodical  literature. 


ELEGY 

ON   THE   DEATH   OF 

DOCTOR    BOWDITCH, 

The  distinguished  Translator  of  the  "  Mecanique  Celeste" 

REVERED,  beloved,  adored  by  all  that  knew 
The  worth  and  wisdom  of  thy  matchless  mind ! 
Even  thou  hast  paid  the  tribute  that  is  due 
From  us  to  Death — the  despot  of  mankind.  ' 

For  that  we  weep  not — none  must  linger  here — 
And  none  would  linger,  when  life's  oil  is  spent ; 
As  strength  and  health's  frail  glories  disappear, 
Fate  calls  us  hence,  and  Nature  cries  "  content" 

Children  may  weep ;  but 't  is  for  men  to  know 
How  just  the  judgment  is  that  dooms  decay ; 
And  though  we  sigh,  we  bear  the  lethal  blow, 
And  learn  from  God  the  lesson  to  obey. 

So  did'st  thou  feel  the  necessary  law ; 
So  like  a  sainted  sage  did'st  thou  expire ; 
Calmly  thy  sense  its  flickering  taper  saw, 
Meekly  thy  soul  gave  up  its  fainting  fire. 

The  eye — the  voice — the  hand,  are  useless  now, 
Those  clay  companions  of  a  nobler  guest ; 
Cold  as  sepulchral  sculpture  is  thy  brow — 
Still  as  the  rock  thy  thought-deserted  breast. 

But  not  the  godlike,  intellectual  flame, 
With  these  is  quenched.    The  mind  that  searched  the  stars 
Yet  blooms — increased  in  knowledge — yet  the  same ; 
Time  spares  the  spirit,  but  the  body  mars. 

The  world  is  poorer  than  't  was  yesterday — 
But  heaven  is  richer.    We  have  lost  indeed 
A  guide  and  teacher ;  but  the  angels  may 
Rejoice  that  thou  from  fleshly  chains  art  freed. 


119 

Now  shalt  thou  know  the  whole  of  that  strange  tale, 
A  part  of  which  thy  genius  grasped  before ; 
Thy  Father's  hand  his  secrets  shall  unveil, 
And  of  his  myst'ries  ope  -the  sacred  door. 

Thou  shalt  know  all— while  we  who,  left  behind, 
In  darkness  grope,  are  still  the  slaves  of  doubt ; 
Thou  seest  every  thing,  but  we  are  blind, 
Fearing  to  puff  this  mortal  candle  out. 

Pure  peace  and  satisfaction  to  thy  soul 
Shall  the  disclosure  of  heaven's  wonders  bring ; 
Across  thy  faith  no  curt'ning  clouds  shall  roll, 
But  all  be  told  thee  by  thy  sire  and  king. 

Must  we  remain,  an*d  never  read  the  page 
Whereon  those  starry  characters  are  writ  ? 
No — thank  the  warnings  of  approaching  age — 
Ourselves,  like  thee,  this  earthy  globe  must  quit. 

Sublime,  like  thee,  our  weaker  view  shall  scan 
The  frame  and  motion  of  yon  orbs  of  light, 
Forget  what 't  is  to  act  and  think  as  man, 
And  see  the  future  opened  on  our  sight. 

With  such  assurance  let  us  cease  to  sigh, 
Live  like  the  wise,  and  die  as  fits  the  brave ; 
The  tomb  is  but  an  entrance  to  the  sky — 
The  road  to  bliss  lies  through  the  mouldy  grave. 


These  beautiful  lines  appeared  anonymously  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser 
of  March  22,  a  few  days  after  the  decease  of  Dr.  Bowditch.  Why  does  not* 
the  author  reveal  himself?  [herself?]  Any  one  might  justly  feel  proud  of 
being  able  to  assert  a  claim  to  them. 


ERRATA. 

Page  12,  line  13,  after  millions,  insert  of  miles.    This  error  occurs  in  about 
half  the  copies. 

Page  36,  line  5,  for  twenty-three,  read  twenty-seven. 
"      61,  Note,  line  10,  for  1828  read  1826. 
"      43,  line  11,  after  office,  insert  of  Actuary. 


BOSTON: 
PRINTED    BY   FREEMAN    AND    BOLLES, 

WASHINGTOH-STKEET. 


CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 


FORM  NO.  DD6 


BERKELEY 
BERKELEY,  CA  94720  es 


